Acid – treated activated carbon for phenolic compound removal in acid pre-treatment of lignocellulosic biomass for biogas production

Abstract

Phenolic compound can be an inhibitor during acid pre-treatment process in the conversion of biomass into bioenergy and consequently reduces the production yield. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the potential use of activated carbon from coconut shell for phenolic compound removal and gallic acid was used as model phenolic. Granular activated carbon was treated by using 20% concentration of phosphoric acid to its properties and function. Acid treated and untreated activated carbon were characterized in term of morphology, surface functionalities and material phase by means of SEM, FT-IR and XRD. Few parameters that influenced the removal of gallic acid were studied which included the effect of adsorbent dosage, initial concentration, contact time, and pH. It is observed that the acid treated activated carbon was successfully remove the gallic acid for about 97% using of 0.5g/L adsorbent dosage, with initial concentration of 100 mg/L, at pH value of 4 and 150 minutes contact time. The adsorption behavior was fixed with Langmuir isotherm fixed the experiment data which indicates homogenous adsorption. These experimental results also revealed that coconut shell based activated carbon is viable cheaper adsorbent for phenolic compound removal.