Pyrolysis is one form of energy recovery process which has the potential to generate oil, gas and char products. The char becomes an attractive by-product, with applications including production of activated carbons, which is useful as a ethylene sorbent for climacteric fruit packaging. In this work, activated carbon prepared from waste tire, produced as a by product of the bio-diesel extraction industry was prepared via chemical treatment with phosphoric acid (H3PO4) at three different char:H3PO4 ratios (1:1, 1:2 and 1:3) under fixed bed pyrolysis at 400, 500 and 600°C for 30 minutes in nitrogen (N2) flow rate of 1000 mL/min and heating rate of 20°C/min. Result shows that char pyrolyzed at 800°C contained high fixed carbon and low volatile content favorable for subsequent activation process compared to other cases.(data not show here) Under the experimental conditions investigated, impregnation ratio of 1:2 were found to be suitable for producing high-surface area activated carbon. It was shown that H3PO4 did work effectively as dehydration reagent at approximately 600°C. The obtained carbons were characterized by nitrogen adsorptiondesorption isotherms at-196 °C. The surface area of activated carbons, which were determined by application of the BrunauerEmmettTeller (BET) and t-plot methods, were achieved as high as 833.50 m2/g. The chemically activated carbons were found to be mainly type II carbons and high adsorption property (Methylene blue adsorption = 622 mg/g and Iodine number = 899 mg/g).
Advancement in recycling waste tire activated carbon to potential adsorbents
