Characterization of activated charcoal obtained from malt bagasse

Abstract

Nowadays the concern about the environment has pushed the development of new technologies capable of reducing the human impact on earth. The utilization of malt bagasse to produce activated charcoal reduces the impact of this reject on the environment. The present work produced and activated the charcoal of malt bagasse using phosphoric acid (H3PO4), potassium hydroxide (KOH) and sodium acetate (CH3COONa) as activating agent in a range from 1 to 3% of concentration. The activated charcoal was produced in three particle sizes limit (20, 40 and 60 ASTM) resulting in 11 experiments through full factorial design 23. Analysis of yield, apparent density, pH, conductivity and mesoporosity were performed. The average yield obtained was 20.2%. The charcoal with 60 mesh and chemically activated with 1% of sodium hydroxide showed the highest density (0.360 g/cm³), while the average density was 0.257 g/cm³. The mesoporosity analysis indicated that all experiments adsorbed more than 99% of methylene blue (50 mg/L) present in the solution. In this way, the activated charcoal obtained from malt bagasse present characteristics to be an excellent adsorbent.