Preparation of Potassium Permanganate Confined in Porous Carbon Synthesized from Palm Kernel Shell and its Application for Hydrogen Sulfide Removal

Abstract

The goal of this study is to investigate the efficacy of potassium permanganate (KMnO4) confined in porous carbon for hydrogen sulfide removal. As porous support, carbon was prepared by carbonization process of abundantly biomass source of palm kernel shell (named KATKS). The surface of porous carbon was first modified using hydrogen peroxide oxidation. The confinement process was carried out by an impregnation process. The KMnO4 contents in porous carbon were varied i.e. 5%, 10%, and 20% w/w (KMnO4-%/KATKS-Ox). Materials were characterized by N2-sorption analysis and SEM-EDX. The results showed that KATKS possesses a high specific surface area of ca. 700 m2/g. Due to the impregnation of KMnO4, the specific surface area of KMnO4-%/KATKS-Ox decreased to ca. 450 m2/g. SEM-EDX revealed a successful confinement process in which elements of K, Mn, and O were displayed and dispersed on the carbon surface. In the hydrogen sulfide (H2S) oxidation testing, KMnO4-20%/KATKS-Ox showed the highest performance of H2S removal compared to other materials due to the high amount of KMnO4. KMnO4-20%/KATKS-Ox could reduce until 98.7% of H2S. This is remarkably higher than only using bulk KMnO4 (without confinement) which showed activity of ca. 70% reduction.