Physical synthesis and characterization of activated carbon from date seeds for CO₂ capture

In this study, we report the use of activated carbon synthesized from the seeds of popular local date fruits in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as potential sorbents for carbon dioxide (CO₂) adsorption applications. Activated carbons were prepared by physical methods involving furnace pyrolysis and followed by activation under CO₂ atmosphere in the temperature range 600-900°C. The evaluation of adsorption capacity of the activated carbon was supported by different characterization studies including thermogravimetric and elemental analysis, surface area and porosity measurements, infrared spectra analysis, and scanning electron microscopy. Heats of adsorption measurements were performed using a micro reaction calorimeter. Results indicate that the optimum temperature for pyrolysis of raw date seeds is 800°C with activation period of one hour. Physically activated samples with greater pore characteristics had higher CO₂ loading capacity at room temperatures, with maximum loading of 141.14mg-CO₂/g-AC for materials pyrolysed at 800°C and activated at 900°C. This was significantly higher than commercially obtained activated carbon samples (96.21 mg-CO₂/g-AC). Overall, the date seed synthesized AC by physical method has high CO₂ loading; moreover, the abundance and low cost of these date seeds may make the derived sorbent suitable for CO₂ capture applications.