Removal of Various Contaminants by Highly Porous Activated Carbon Sorbent Derived from Agricultural Waste Produced in Malaysia - A Review

Abstract

This paper aims to review recent studies in preparing activated carbons from different types of agricultural wastes in Malaysia and how it can help Malaysia manage agricultural waste. It can be seen that most biomasses can be used as precursors to produce activated carbon for a wide range of pollutants and this adsorbent can be modified to optimally function depending on the types of pollutants. Under optimum dosages, modification through chemical activation using acidic, basic, or drying agents has significant effects on the selectivity of the analyte adsorption. The acidic activating agent causes the activated carbon to have negatively charged acid groups which enable it to adsorb cationic adsorbate while the basic activating agent causes the adsorbent to have a positive surface charge and enable it to adsorb anionic adsorbate.