Activated carbons for water treatment prepared by phosphoric acid activation of hydrothermally treated beer waste

• Activated carbons were produced by chemical activation of hydrothermally carbonized (HTC) beer waste, withphosphoric acid as the activation agent. The activation was optimized within a full factorial design, using the outcome of 19different experiments. Four different parameters (concentration of the acid, activation time, activation temperature, flow rate)were analyzed with respect to their influence on the median pore size. The concentration of H3PO4 had a strong positive effecton the median pore size. The specific surface areas of these activated carbons were ∼1000 m2/g, which compared wellcommercially available activated carbons. The activated carbons had mostly large pores with a size of ∼4 nm, and a significantamount of acid surface groups. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed that the morphology of the HTC beer wastechanged significantly after the chemical activation. The capacity to adsorb methylene blue from aqueous solutions was 341 mg/g,for one of the activated carbons at pH 7. A Langmuir model described the uptake of the dye quite well, which suggested ahomogeneous adsorption of Methylene Blue (MB).

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Kemi -- Materialkemi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Chemical Sciences -- Materials Chemistry (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Materials Chemistry

materialkemi

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)