Title: Production of activated carbon pellets from olive stones for CO2 adsorption

Authors: Wahid Djeridi; Abdelmottaleb Ouederni; Lassaad El Mir

Addresses: Research Laboratory: Process Engineering and Industrial Systems, National School of Engineers of Gabes, University of Gabes, St. Omar Ibn Elkhattab, 6029 Gabes, Tunisia ' Research Laboratory: Process Engineering and Industrial Systems, National School of Engineers of Gabes, University of Gabes, St. Omar Ibn Elkhattab, 6029 Gabes, Tunisia ' Laboratory of Physics of Materials and Nanomaterials Applied at Environment (LaPhyMNE), Faculty of Sciences in Gabes, Gabes University, Gabes, Tunisia; College of Sciences, Department of Physics, Al Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University (IMSIU), Riyadh 11623, Saudi Arabia

Abstract: The main objective of this work is to compare and model sorption isotherms of pure carbon dioxide to well characterised activated carbon pellets (ACP) prepared at different pyrolysis temperatures to determine the most appropriate sample for CO2 storage. CO2 adsorption on the activated carbon samples were studied using a manometric adsorption method. Experiments were conducted at room temperature and in the pressure range between 1 and 23 bars. The surface area, pore volume and pore diameter were evaluated from the analysis of N2 adsorption isotherm data. The characterisation of carbon materials was performed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results reveal that all the samples are essentially microporous and have a high CO2 adsorption capacity. The highest CO2 adsorption value is 9.52 mmol/g at room temperature and 23 bars. The experimental results were fitted using Toth's approach and with corrected Langmuir's equation. Modelling provides affinity settings of carbon dioxide for different activated carbon.

Keywords: activated carbon pellets; pyrolysis temperature; porous texture; CO2; carbon dioxide; carbon adsorption; modelling; sorption isotherms; olive stones; carbon storage; manometric adsorption; surface area; pore volume; pore diameter.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEE.2016.082303

International Journal of Environmental Engineering, 2016 Vol.8 No.2/3, pp.110 - 123

Accepted: 10 Apr 2016
Published online: 18 Feb 2017 *

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