Preparation and characterization of activated carbon from castor de-oiled cake

Abstract

Biomass residues have been used to produce activated carbons. On this process, the activation method and the raw composition determine the properties as porosity and surface area of the charcoal. After the extraction of castor oil, there is a solid byproduct (cake) of low added value, which was used in the production of activated carbon to add value to this waste. For this purpose two traditional methods were used, first, physical activation using as activating agents steam, CO₂ and mixture of both, and additionally chemical activation using K₂CO₃ as the activating agent. Some activated carbons were characterized using N₂ adsorption isotherms_, BET surface areas varied between 255.98 (m²/g) and 1218.43 (m²/g). By SEM and EDS analysis was possible to observe that materials obtained by the two types of activation are principally amorphous and morphological characteristics of the carbon obtained by physical activation are very different from those obtained by chemical activation. Finally, through impregnation of inorganic phases of Ni and Mo was revealed that the high dispersion characteristics, these carbonaceous materials will have potential to be used as catalyst support.