Abstract
The present work entitled “Precipitated Silica and Activated Carbon from Rice Husk” was taken up to study the optimum operating conditions at laboratory scale. Precipitation of Silica was carried out using various parameters such as pre-treatment or acid washing, carbonization temperature of acid washed rice husk, activating agent such as sodium hydroxide, time of carbonization, time of heating with activating agent. The activated carbon was obtained from rice husk ash at various concentration of activating agent (Sodium Hydroxide) and different activation temperature. These studies indicate that nano-silica powder can be produced by optimizing the parameters used in the study. Without optimization, one would get different grades of silica with different yields. Similarly, different grades of activated carbon can be obtained by varying the parameters of activating agent, carbonizing temperature after activation and time of carbonization. The article presents a procedure to produce nano-silica powder from rice husk along with wastewater treatment grade of activated carbon.
Highlights
Rice husk, an agro waste material, contains about 20% ash which can be retrieved as amorphous, chemically reactive silica
India produces around 25 million tons of rice husks. 78% of weight as rice, broken rice and bran, rest 22% of weight of paddy as husk. 75% of organic volatile matter and 25% of weight is converted as Rice Husk Ash (RHA) during firing process
There are different procedures to obtain silica from rice husk, the most important step is to first treat the rice husk with acid treatment to remove any impurities such as metals that are present in the rice husk
Summary
An agro waste material, contains about 20% ash which can be retrieved as amorphous, chemically reactive silica. This silica finds wide applications as filler, catalyst support, adsorbent and a source for synthesizing high performance silicon and its compounds. Preparation of different value added products like SiC, porous carbon, zeolites, cordierite, etc from rice husk ash has been reported [12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19] It has extensive uses as filler, additive, abrasive, oil adsorbent, sweeping component, suspension agent for porcelain enamels etc. The internal surface area of these pores contributes to a very high total internal surface area in the range of 1000 m2/gm or more
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
