Single Step Chemical Synthesis and Characterization of activated carbon from date seeds for CO2 capture

Abstract

In an ever-growing attempt to reduce the excessive anthropogenic CO2 emissions, several CO2 capture technologies have been developed in recent years. Adsorption using solid carbonaceous materials is one of the many promising examples of these technologies. Activated carbon prepared from date seeds agricultural biomass have already been developed and are used in many industrial applications. However, there is not much research that explored their potential for CO2 capture applications. This study reports the preparation of single step chemical activation of Activated carbon (AC) using KOH and ZnCl2. Different impregnation ratios and activation temperatures were studied to find the best preparation combination for high CO2 capture capacity and surface areas. Infrared Spectra was used to check the functional groups for the prepared samples, and the surface area and pore volume of each material were found using a surface area and pore size analyzer. Similarly, the heats of adsorption, adsorption capacity, and cyclic stability of the materials were measured and calculated to evaluate each material's performance and compare them to the commercially prepared AC used in the industry. At the optimized impregnation ratio of 3:1 and activation temperature of 300 °C, the produced AC-ZnCl2-300 had the highest adsorption capacity of 1.971 mmol/g and BET surface area of 789.06 m2/g. It has shown cyclic stability over ten cycles with low regeneration temperatures of 80 °C. Aspen adsorption was used to model a TSA system using AC from DS, and the % recovery was observed to be 98% but with a low purity of 0.1%. The results are promising and encouraging further testing and exploration. This research work highlights the UAE's commitment to combat climate change and its efforts towards reducing greenhouse gases through Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) research

Date of Award	May 2021
Original language	American English