Buriti palm stem as a potential renewable source for activated carbon production

Abstract

The growth of industrial sector has increased the generation of harmful pollutants to the environment, along with the need of their appropriate treatment including proper disposal or reuse so that activated carbon (AC), which can be obtained from various sources, has proven to be such a material with great adsorptive capacity to remove those pollutants. In this study, ​buriti petiole was used as an alternative raw material for AC production, once buriti palm is largely found in the Cerrado region, which comprises a broad environmental ecosystem in Brazil. In order to obtain activated carbons (ACs) from buriti petiole, salt of iron (III) chloride was used as activating agent in the ratios of petiole/activating agent from 1:1 to 1:3 (m/m), i.e. keeping the petiole mass constant and varying the activating agent mass. In the carbon activated production process it was employed activating agent of relatively low commercial cost, as well as low activation temperature at 400 °C under nitrogen flow for 3 h. The material was obtained with predominance of mesoporous structure, adequate to wastewater treatment due to its large adsorption capacity and low cost of production of activated carbon from a renewable vegetal source.