Activated Carbon from Empty Fruit Bunches (EFB)

EFB was proposed as raw materials for activated carbon production due to their large availability and has high amount of carbon content. Besides, EFB wastes can be recycled and turn into value added product. For this experiment, shaggy and core part of EFB were investigated separately as there were no investigation has been done for separated part of EFB (shaggy and core) before. This experiment aims to prepare activated carbon product from EFB and determining its characteristics with respect to different treatment process. Experiment was carried out by undergoes two main process; pyrolysis and activation. The temperature for pyrolysis varies from 400°C, 450°C and 500°C in nitrogen atmosphere. For the activation process, the temperature varies from 600°C, 700°C and 800°C with the present of 15%, 60% and 100% of CO2, holding time of 30 minutes, 60 minutes and 120 minutes. Experimental results show that activation temperature, CO2 percentage and holding time have significant effects on yield and morphology of activated carbon produced. The optimum conditions for activation to produce highest yield of activated carbon is found to be at the lowest activation temperature (600°C), lowest CO2 percentage (15%) and shortest holding time (30 minutes). While, the activated carbon produced from core part produce bigger cross section pore diameter (32.6μm) compared to shaggy part (30.2μm) after activated at the optimum condition of activation temperature 700°C, 60% of CO2 and a holding time of 60 minutes.