Activated carbon: classifications, properties and applications

572 Pages·2012·18.914 MB·English

by  Kwiatkowski, James F

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING METHODS AND TECHNOLOGY

A C
CTIVATED ARBON

CLASSIFICATIONS, PROPERTIES
AND APPLICATIONS

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CHEMICAL ENGINEERING METHODS AND TECHNOLOGY

A C
CTIVATED ARBON

CLASSIFICATIONS, PROPERTIES
AND APPLICATIONS

JAMES F. KWIATKOWSKI
EDITOR

Nova Science Publishers, Inc.
New York
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Activated carbon : classifications, properties and applications / editor,
James F. Kwiatkowski.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN978-1-62081-666-0 (eBook)
1. Carbon, Activated. I. Kwiatkowski, James F.
TP245.C4A36 2011
662'.93--dc22
2011001139

Published by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. (cid:169) New York
CONTENTS

Preface vii 
Chapter 1 Environmental Applications of Activated Carbon
and Carbon Nanotubes 1 
A. R. Khataee, S. Aber, M. Zarei and M. Sheydaei 
Chapter 2 Catalytic Ozonation of Organics with Loaded Activated Carbon 93 
Luo Hanjin and Rao Yifei 
Chapter 3 Surface Chemistry of Activated Carbons 125 
Sónia A. C. Carabineiro, M. Fernando R. Pereira,
José J. M. Órfão and José L. Figueiredo 
Chapter 4 Activated Carbons as Catalyst Supports 169 
M. E. Gálvez, S. Ascaso, A. Boyano,
R. Moliner and M. J. Lázaro 
Chapter 5 Conventional and Non-Conventional Thermal Processing
for the Production of Activated Carbons from
Agro-Industrial Wastes 205 
Leandro S. Oliveira and Adriana S. Franca 
Chapter 6 Activated Carbons: Classifications, Properties and Applications 239 
John U. Kennedy Oubagaranadin and Z. V. P. Murthy  
Chapter 7 Carbon Nanofibers: Synthesis, Types, Properties
and Chemical Activation 267 
Vicente Jiménez, Paula Sánchez, Mª Luz Sánchez,
Antonio Nieto-Márquez, José Luís Valverde
and Amaya Romero 
Chapter 8 Activated Carbon as a Metal Oxide Support: A Review 297 
A. Barroso-Bogeat, C. Fernández-González,
M. Alexandre-Franco and V. Gómez-Serrano 
Chapter 9 Using Activated Carbon from Bagasse for Color Removal 319 
Paitip Thiravetyan and Parinda Suksabye
vi Contents
Chapter 10 Use of Activated Carbon as Pre-Separation Agent
in NAA of Selenium, Cobalt and Iodine 347 
M. Navarrete and T. Martínez 
Chapter 11 Virtual Porous Carbon (VPC) Models: Application in the Study
of Fundamental Activated Carbon Properties by Molecular
Simulations 355 
Artur P. Terzyk, Sylwester Furmaniak, Piotr A. Gauden,
Peter J. F. Harris, Radosław P. Wesołowski and Piotr Kowalczyk 
Chapter 12 Activated Carbonaceous Materials Based on Thermosetting
Binder Precursors 377 
J. Simitzis and Z. Ioannou 
Chapter 13 Platinum Catalysts on Activated Carbon Supports Prepared from
Mononuclear and Polynuclear Precursors: Influence
of Porous Structure of the Support 393 
L. B. Okhlopkova and S. Yu. Troitskii 
Chapter 14 Planting Soybean in Cd-, Cu-, or Zn-Contaminated Soils
to Assess Its Feasibility in Further Producing Biodiesel 409 
Hung-Yu Lai, Bo-Ching Chen, Hsuen-Li Chen, Chih-Jen Lu
and Zueng-Sang Chen  
Chapter 15 Adsorptive Removal of Residual Sulfur Compounds in Commercial
Fuel Oil by Means of Biomass-Derived
Activated Carbons 421 
Seiji Kumagai 
Chapter 16 Combination of Ozone and Activated Carbon for Water
and Wastewater Treatment 433 
F. J. Beltrán and P. M. Álvarez 
Chapter 17 Strategies for Optimizing the Development of Cellulose-Based
Activated Carbon Cloths by the Chemical Activation Process 475 
M. E. Ramos, P. R. Bonelli and A. L. Cukierman 
Chapter 18 Self Assembled Ordered Mesoporous Carbon: Synthesis,
Characterization and Applications 509 
Dipendu Saha and Shuguang Deng 
Index 539
PREFACE

This new book presents topical research in the study of activated carbon, which includes
topics such as the surface chemistry of activated carbons and as catalyst supports; thermal
processing of activated carbons from agro-industrial wastes; activated carbon as a metal oxide
support; Virtual Porous Carbon (VPC) models and combining ozone and activated carbon for
water and wastewater treatment.
Chapter 1 – In the past decade, research and development in the area of environmental
remediation processes have become tremendous. The tunable physical, chemical, and
electrical properties of activated carbon and carbon nanotubes inspire innovative solutions to
persistent environmental challenges. This book describes the environmental applications of
activated carbon and carbon nanotubes. It begins with explanations about preparation
methods of the activated carbon. Then, examples of early environmental applications of
different activated carbons (e.g. powdered activated carbon (PAC), granulated activated
carbon (GAC), activated carbon fibers (ACF), and impregnated carbon) have been discussed.
Applications of carbon nanotubes in the fields of filtration, adsorption, electrochemical water
treatment processes and photocatalysis are subsequently reviewed. Finally, adverse and side
effects of application of activated carbon and carbon nanotubes are discussed.
Chapter 2 – It is important to increase the efficiency of producing hydroxyl radicals with
ozone during the process of treating wastewater containing toxic and refractory organic
pollutants. In the present study, nickel oxide-loaded activated carbon (NiO/AC) and copper
oxide-loaded activated carbon (CuO/AC) were prepared with an incipient wetness
impregnation method at low temperatures. The effectiveness for degradation of phenol and
oxalic acid by the combination of NiO/AC or CuO/AC and ozone at different pH values and
concentrations of tert-butyl alcohol (t-BuOH) was investigated. The composition and surface
morphology of activated carbon (AC) and catalyst were characterized by XRD, SEM, BET
and AAS, which showed that copper and nickel were loaded on the surface of AC in the form
of rod-like copper oxide and nickel oxide. The specific, micropore, and external surface areas
and micropore volume of Cu/AC and Ni/AC decreased by 50.7%, 62.9%, 34.8%, and 62.4%
and 47.9%, 60.6%, 31.0%, and 60.7%, respectively. Compared to those of AC, in the systems
of O /Cu/AC and O /Ni/AC, the mechanism of degradation of phenol and oxalic acid by
3 3
ozone was achieved mainly by molecular ozone oxidation, while the mechanism with O /AC
3
was primarily due to molecular ozone oxidation and absorption of AC. The removal
efficiencies of phenol and oxalic acid by O /Cu/AC were 29% and 30.4% while those by
3
O /Ni/AC were 52% and 59%. The efficiencies of both methods were higher than those by
3
ozone only. The degradation process occurred during the formation of hydroxyl radicals and
viii James F. Kwiatkowski
the reaction of Cu/AC or Ni/AC with ozone demonstrates the strong synergy effect. The
catalytic performance of Cu/AC and Ni/AC were stable, and both catalysts were reusable for
further catalyzation.
Chapter 3 – Activated carbons have a disordered graphitic structure, which has been
described as compared to to wrinkled paper sheets. The presence of heteroatoms (such as O,
N, H, S, etc) bound to the edges of the graphene layers originates a variety of surface
functional groups. Oxygenated functionalities have been most extensively studied, since they
are formed spontaneously by exposure of the carbon material to the atmosphere; however,
nitrogen, sulfur and phosphorous groups can also be found. The nature and concentration of
surface functional groups may be modified by suitable thermal or chemical treatments.
Treatments in the gas or liquid phase can be used to increase the concentration of surface
groups, while heating under inert atmosphere may be used to selectively remove some of
those functionalities. A variety of experimental techniques has been used to characterise
functional groups, such as chemical titration methods, temperature-programmed desorption,
X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and infra-red spectroscopy methods. The results obtained
by temperature-programmed desorption agree quantitatively with the elemental and
proximate analyses of the oxidized materials, and qualitatively with the observations by infra-
red spectroscopy. Some applications of functionalised activated carbons in adsorption and
catalysis for several reactions are mentioned.
Chapter 4 – Among their many interesting applications, activated carbons have been
considered over the last decades for their utilization in several processes involving
heterogeneous catalytic reactions. In these processes the catalyst increases the reaction rate
and controls the selectivity of the reactions involved towards the generation of desired
products. Most of these catalysts consist of metals or metallic compounds supported on
several materials which role is not only to maintain the catalytic phase in a well dispersed
state but also affect the catalytic activity, by means of direct participation in any of the steps
of the reaction mechanism, or by favouring the interactions between active phase and support.
This participation and their interaction with the active phase make catalyst supports more than
just simple active phase carriers.
Chapter 5 – Adsorption is currently the most prospective technology being used for the
removal of organic and inorganic pollutants from waters and wastewaters. Although there are
many adsorbents in use, activated carbon is the most widely used adsorbent for the removal of
a variety of contaminants from waters. However, there is a major disadvantage associated
with it, which is the strict necessity to regenerate the activated carbon, due to its inherent high
cost, to allow for further use, thus, imparting additional costs to the adsorption process.
Another negative aspect is the loss of adsorption capacity during the regeneration process
which restricts its application even further. Although synthetic resins present a longer
working life than activated carbons as adsorbents, their use is still costly for they also require
regeneration after use. These aspects have greatly stimulated research interests into the
production of alternative low-cost adsorbents to replace the costly activated carbons and
synthetic resins. Attention has been focused on preparation and use of low-cost adsorbents,
which present adequate adsorption capacities and are able to remove unwanted pollutants
from contaminated waters without the need for regeneration and, thus, doing so at a low-cost.
Industrial wastes and agricultural byproducts are classes of materials that are being
considered the most promising precursors for the production of low-cost adsorbents for they
are renewable, locally available in large quantities, inexpensive and require little processing
Preface ix
to turn them into activated carbons and increase their adsorption capacities toward a specific
adsorbate (pollutant). The majority of potential precursor materials being studied is of
biological origin and, thus, fit into the categories of carbonaceous or lignocellulosic materials.
As such, these materials contain a variety of chemical functional groups at their surfaces (e.g.,
carboxylic, phenolic, amino and others) and upon thermal and chemical treatment these
groups can be manipulated, transforming the material into a more functionally selective
activated carbon. These surface modifications will contribute to a variety of adsorption
mechanisms, such as chemisorption, complexation, ion exchange and others, depending on
the possible spectrum of interactions between adsorbent and adsorbate. Thus, the objective of
this essay is to present a critical overview on conventional and non-conventional thermal and
chemical treatments that are being employed in the preparation of activated carbons using
residues of biological origin as precursors, discussing their effects on both physical and
chemical characteristics of the produced adsorbents and on the performance of the prepared
activated carbon for the removal of wastewater pollutants.
Chapter 6 – Activated carbons are processed forms of carbon and are one of the most
significant adsorbent materials due to their highly developed porosity, large surface area
ranging from 500 to 3000 m2/g, variable characteristics of surface chemistry, and high degree
of surface reactivity. Most of the activated carbons are produced by a two-stage process, viz.,
carbonization followed by activation. The first-stage, carbonization, is to enrich the carbon
content and to create an initial porosity and the second-stage, activation process, helps in
enhancing the pore structure. Precursors to activated carbons are either of botanical origin
(e.g., wood, coconut shells and nut shells) or of degraded and coalified plant matter (e.g.,
peat, lignite and all ranks of coal). Agricultural by-products are also considered as very
important source material for the production of activated carbons as they are renewable and
low-cost materials. Utilization of wastes as raw materials in the preparation of activated
carbon is an interesting alternative to the expensive commercial activated carbons. Activated
carbons may be obtained by physical activation (with steam or gaseous CO ) or chemical
2
activation by strongly reacting chemicals, such as ZnCl , H PO and alkali-metal hydroxides
2 3 4
(NaOH and KOH). Chemically activated carbons have good thermal stability, characteristic
porous structure, and large internal surface area and porous volume. Activated carbons are
classified in many ways, although a general classification can be made based on their physical
characteristics, as powdered activated carbon, granular activated carbon, extruded activated
carbon, impregnated carbon, polymer coated carbon and other types, such as cloths and
fibers. They are used in specific applications. Powdered activated carbons are added directly
to process units, granulated carbons are used for deodorization and for the separation of
components in flow systems, extruded activated carbons are mainly used for gas phase
applications, impregnated carbons are used for specific applications in air pollution control
and polymer coated carbons are useful for hemoperfusion. Properties of activated carbon are:
its specific surface area, iodine index, molasses index, tannin index, methylene blue index,
butane index, carbon tetrachloride index, dechlorination half-value length, density, hardness
number, ash content, porosity and particle size distribution. The indexes give an idea of the
kind of pore a certain carbon has. Activated carbons are used in a wide range of applications
that include medicinal uses, gas storage, pollutant and odor removal, gas separations,
catalysis, gas purification, metal extraction, water purification, chromatographic separation,
chemical purification, trapping mercury, fuel cells and many other applications. Carbon
adsorption has numerous applications in industrial processes; such as spill cleanup,