Activated carbon is and has been one of the most efficient agents applied in water and wastewater treatment. However, commercially produced activated carbon can be expensive and is normally produced from non-renewable sources. In this study, we aim to generate activated carbon from renewable and low cost materials that occur naturally and are normally discarded in many regions of the world including, olive pits, date pits, acorn shells, corn husks and coconut shells. Factors influencing the efficiency of the activation process include activation temperature (600 oC, 700 oC, and 800 oC), activation time (1 hr, 2 hr, and 3 hr), and nitrogen flow rate (150 mL/min, 250 mL/min, and 350 mL/min). Minitab software was used to design an experiment to evaluate these factors collectively, each under three levels (33 factorial design). The novelty of this study is the utilization of factorial design in the experimental approach.

Application of factorial analysis to optimize preparation of activated carbons from renewable and low-cost precursors including olive pits, date pits, acorn shells, corn husks and coconut shells

255th National Meeting (2018)

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