Biomass waste fern leaves as a material for a sustainable method of activated carbon production for CO2 capture

Abstract

In this work, we report the use of activated carbon synthesized from a sustainable material - fern leaves - as a sorbent for carbon dioxide capture applications. The resource-friendly technology for activated carbon production was applied and described. The activated carbons were prepared by chemical and physical activation and carbonization at the same time at the temperature range of 500–900 °C. This method reduces energy consumption and resources. KOH and CO2 were used as activating agents. The evaluation of the CO2 adsorption ability of the activated carbon was supported by different methods including: elemental analysis using X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, ash content, surface area and porosity measurements, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Results indicated that the optimum temperature of the synthesis was 700 °C. The highest achieved adsorption of CO2 was equal to 6.77 mmol/g and 3.58 mmol/g at 0 °C and 25 °C, respectively. The activated carbons synthesized from fern leaves showed high CO2 adsorption and selectivity. Moreover, the abundance and low cost of fern leaves make them very promising carbon sources for CO2 sorbents production.