Abstract
The exhaust gas or emission from motor vehicle contains various pollutants and some of them are toxic and very harmful for human health. In the present work, we prepared an activated carbon to reduce the toxic pollutants (via adsorption process) from the exhaust gas of the motor vehicle (particularly motorcycle in this work). The activated carbon was prepared from local banana peel which considered as an agricultural waste without economic value. To prepare the activated carbon, banana peel was carbonized using furnace at 500°C. Then the resulted carbon was activated using chemical activation with ZnCl2 and physical activation with either microwave (300 W) or furnace (700°C). The prepared activated carbon was then characterized using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) analysis. The SEM result showed that the pore of microwave induced ZnCl2 activated carbon (ACM) was larger than the pore of virgin char/carbon and furnace induced ZnCl2 activataed carbon (ACF). The FT-IR spectrum of ACM showed some peaks at 3408.59 cm-1, 1589.25 cm-1, and 1093.63 cm-1. They are assigned to O-H stretching, C=O stretching, and C-OH stretching. Additionally, the adsorption performance of the prepared activation carbon to reduce the pollutants concentration (i.e. CO and CH) from the exhaust gas of motor vehicle was investigated. The results showed that the activated carbon induced by microwave and ZnCl2 activation (ACM) gave the best result. The adsorption or removal efficiency of gas CO reached approximately 97.64 %vol.
Highlights
Nowdays, air pollution resulted from the exhaust emission of motor vehicle engine is a topic of concern, due to the significant number of motor vehicles in the world, especially in the big cities
Functional group analysis was performed on banana peel carbon powder; ZnCl2 activated carbon and microwave (ACM), the activated carbon by microwave (ACM) before and after adsorption test
In the present work, activated carbon was prepared from local banana peel which considered as an agricultural waste without economic value
Summary
Air pollution resulted from the exhaust emission of motor vehicle engine is a topic of concern, due to the significant number of motor vehicles in the world, especially in the big cities. One of ways to reduce the air pollution is via adsorption process by using an activated carbon. Activation step can be performed by physical or chemical process. Banana peel is one of agricultural biomass waste that has potential to be used as a raw material for the production of activated carbon [6]. It is because banana peel has high lignocellulose content, approximately 90.3% (dry weight based) [7]. Activated carbon can be prepared by chemical activation process using ZnCl2. The process is physical activation using heat either by using microwave or furnace. The microwave induced reaction is more effective and faster than a conventional furnace [9]
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