Sea Mango Activated Carbon Preparation and Characterization for Dye Removal

Abstract

The conversion of sea mango oil into non-edible feedstock for biodiesel will lead to the production of abundant sea mango biomass as waste. Thus in this study, the potential of converting sea mango fiber waste into a value added product was analyzed. Sea mango fiber was utilized to produce activated carbon and was tested on dye removal. The sea mango activated carbon (SMAC) was prepared using physical activation by carbon dioxide. The preparation was carried out by varying the activation temperature (600-900 °C), gas flow rate (50–300 ml/min) and activation time (1.0-2.5 h). The parameters are manipulated using Design of Experiment. The prepared activated carbon was tested on methylene blue dye. SMAC was characterized by SEM, FTIR and BET surface area. Results showed that activation temperature and time have significant effect on the characteristic of SMAC and removal of dye. The optimum conditions for preparing the SMAC having the highest dye removal were found to be activation temperature of 810 °C, 178 ml/min of carbon dioxide flow and 1.9 h of activation time. The results showed that the BET surface area and dye removal efficiency of the SMAC are 540 m2/g and 95.6 % respectively.