Sorption properties of activated carbons obtained from corn cobs by chemical and physical activation
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Sorption properties of activated carbons obtained from corn cobs by chemical and physical activation Justyna Ka´zmierczak · Piotr Nowicki · Robert Pietrzak
Received: 31 October 2012 / Accepted: 3 December 2012 / Published online: 13 December 2012 © The Author(s) 2012. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com
Abstract The paper presents results of a study on obtaining activated carbon from common corn cobs and on its use as adsorbent for removal of pollution from liquid and gas phases. The crushed precursor was subjected to pyrolysis at 500 and 800 °C in argon atmosphere and next to physical or chemical activation by CO2 and KOH respectively. The effect of pyrolysis conditions and activation method on the physicochemical properties of the materials obtained was tested. The sorption properties of the carbonaceous adsorbents obtained were characterized by determination of nitrogen dioxide and hydrogen sulphide sorption from gas stream in dry and wet conditions as well as by iodine and methylene blue removal from aqueous solution. The final products were microporous activated carbons of well-developed surface area varying from 337 to 1213 m2 /g and showing diverse acid-base character of the surface. The results obtained in our study have proved that a suitable choice of the activation procedure for corn cobs permits production of cheap adsorbents with high sorption capacity toward toxic gases of acidic character as well as different pollutants from liquid phase. Keywords Waste corn cobs · Activated carbons · Pyrolysis, activation · NO2 /H2 S removal · Iodine and methylene blue adsorption J. Ka´zmierczak · P. Nowicki · R. Pietrzak () Laboratory of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, Adam Mickiewicz University in Pozna´n, ul. Umultowska 89b, 61-614 Pozna´n, Poland e-mail: [email protected] J. Ka´zmierczak e-mail: [email protected] P. Nowicki e-mail: [email protected]
1 Introduction Agricultural production and processing of agricultural products has always been associated with generation of large amounts of post-production wastes, such as corn cobs (Cao et al. 2006), cotton stems (Jiang and Chen 2011), cherry stones (Olivares-Marín et al. 2009), olive stones (Kutahyalıand Eral 2010), grape stones (Özçimen and ErsoyMeriçboyu 2009), apricot stones (Soleimani and Kaghazchi 2008), avocado stones (Elizalde-González et al. 2007), orange peel (Rosas et al. 2010), mango peel (Foo and Hameed 2012), pomelo peal (Foo and Hameed 2011) etc. The wastes can on certain conditions be treated as side products or as pure waste. Many side products contain valuable elements and minerals, but their economic value is lower than the cost of collection, transport and processing for beneficial use. That is why they are also usually discarded as waste. For instance, in the 1980s the production of corn highly increased, which also meant a high increase in the amount of corn cobs. To produce each 100 kg of corn, about 18 kg of cobs are obtained and they are usually treated as waste. There have been attempts of proces
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