Preparation of Mesoporous-Activated Carbon from Branches of Pomegranate Trees: Optimization on Removal of Methylene Blue Using Response Surface Methodology

Jassem M Salman

doi:10.1155/2013/489670

Abstract

Mesoporous activated carbon prepared from branches of pomegranate trees (BP) using physiochemical activation (potassium hydroxide treatment and carbon dioxide gasification). Based on the central composite design (CCD), two factor interaction (2FI) and quadratic models were respectively employed to correlate the activated carbon preparation variables. The effects of the activation temperature, activation time, and chemical impregnation ratios on the carbon yield, methylene blue (MB) removal were investigated. From the analysis of variance (ANOVA), the most influential factor on each experimental design response was identified. The optimum conditions for preparing activated carbon from branches of pomegranate trees (BP) were found to be activation temperature of 620.5°C, activation time of 1.4 h, and chemical impregnation ratio of 1.5. The carbon yield was found to be 16% while the removal of methylene blue was found to be 92.5%.

Highlights

Dyes are widely used by textile industries to color their products
Activation temperature, activation time, and impregnation ratio are the important parameters affecting the characteristics of the activated carbons produced [14]. e number of experimental runs from the central composite design (CCD) for the three variables consists of eight factorial points, six axial points, and six replicates at the centre points indicating that altogether 20 experiments were required, as calculated from (2): NN NNnn + 2nn n nncc = 23 + 2 × 3 + 6 = 20, (2)
Preparation of Pomegranate Trees Branches Activated Carbon Using DOE. e complete design matrix for the yield response of activated carbon prepared from branches of pomegranate trees (BPAC) with the removal of methylene blue solution from the experimental works include 20 runs, ve runs from them at the center point were conducted to

Summary

Introduction

Dyes are widely used by textile industries to color their products. Researchers have studied the production of activated carbon from palm tree [4], cassava peel [5], bagasse [6], date pits [7], olive stones [8], r woods and pistachio shells [9], and jute ber [10]. E advantage of using agricultural by-products as raw materials for manufacturing-activated carbon is that these raw materials are renewable and potentially less expensive to manufacture. E focus of the research is to evaluate the adsorption potential of branches of pomegranate trees-based activated carbon for methylene dye due to the fact that the branches of pomegranate trees are a very abundant and inexpensive material. Journal of Chemistry commonly used material for dying cotton, wood, and silk has a molecular weight of 373.9 g mol−1, which corresponds to methylene blue hydrochloride with three groups of water. e equilibrium data of adsorption studies were processed to understand the adsorption mechanism of the dye molecules onto the activated carbon

Experimental

Results and Discussion

Conclusion