Physicochemical and Sorption Properties of Activated Carbons Obtained from Citrus Fruit Peels and Low Quality Lignite

Abstract

Common citrus fruit peels (banana, grapefruit and orange) as well as low quality lignite were used as precursors for the preparation of cheap activated carbons. In the first step, each of the precursors was air-dried at 110°C, crushed and sieved to the grain size of 5÷6 mm. Next the crushed materials were divided into two parts and subjected to two different treatments: direct activation of the precursors with carbon dioxide or pyrolysis of raw materials followed by physical activation with carbon dioxide. The effect of two variants of thermo-chemical treatment on the elemental composition, textural parameters and acidicbasic character of the surface of adsorbents prepared has been tested. Finally, the activated carbons were tested as adsorbents against two very hazardous and widespread gas pollutants, namely nitrogen dioxide and hydrogen sulphide, as well as toward inorganic and organic liquid pollutants represented by iodine and methylene blue. Depending on the precursor as well as method of preparation, the final products were microporous or mesoporous activated carbons with rather poorly developed surface area ranging from 107 to 527 m2/g and total pore volume from 0.09 to 0.37 cm3/g, showing strongly basic character of the surface. The results obtained have also proved that a proper choice of activation procedure for biomass or low quality lignite allows to produce effective adsorbents with good sorption capacity toward gaseous and liquid pollutants, especially for nitrogen dioxide and iodine.