Title: Characterisation of activated carbon prepared from tamarind wood for wastewater treatment

Authors: S. Kumar, B. Rajmohan, K. Mohanty, B.C. Meikap

Addresses: Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, West Bengal 721302, India. ' Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, West Bengal 721302, India. ' Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, Assam 781039, India. ' Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, India

Abstract: In this paper, an attempt has been made to produce activated carbon from tamarind wood, which is a forest waste, rich in lignocellulosic material. The characterisation of the activated carbon is done based on carbonisation time, temperature, pore volume and Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET) surface area under various operating conditions. The Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analysis is also done to study the morphological changes of the chemically activated carbon. The best condition for the production of the high BET surface area of 1240 m²/g activated carbon from tamarind wood by chemical activation is found to be 100% chemical ratio (activated agent/precursor) at a carbonisation time of 60 min and carbonisation temperature of 500°C.

Keywords: activated carbon; wastewater treatment; adsorption; tamarind wood; surface area; forest waste; lignocellulose.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEE.2010.029836

International Journal of Environmental Engineering, 2010 Vol.2 No.1/2/3, pp.290 - 302

Published online: 02 Dec 2009 *

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