Umi Fazara Md Ali

Optimization study on preparation of amine functionalized sea mango (cerbera odollam) activated carbon for Carbon Dioxide (CO2) adsorption

ABSTRACT Activated carbon derived from sea mango (cerbera odollam), SMAC, was developed from phosphoric acid (H3PO4) activation. Box-Behnken Design (BBD) was employed to optimize the surface area of the SMAC. The tested factors were acid concentration (40 to 60%), carbonization temperature (400 to 600°C) and activation time (1 to 3 h). The optimized parameters were 53.75% H3PO4 concentration, 519.8°C of carbonization temperature and 2.3 h of activation time, which resulted in 857.93 m2/g of BET surface area. The performance of CO2 adsorption was investigated for modified and virgin SMAC. The impregnations of SMACs were done with different amines (AMP, PZ and MEA) to improve its natural adsorption ability and promote nitrogen functional group onto carbon surface with impregnation mass ratio of 2:5 (amine: activated carbon). The effects of adsorption parameters such as activated carbon properties, type of amine used, gas flow rate and adsorbent dosage on breakthrough curves and adsorption bed capacity were evaluated. Reduction in BET surface area indicates that the amine-based chemicals were successfully attached on carbon surface and thus blocked most of the pores on the SMAC particles. The modified surface of SMAC with AMP amine showed the best performance in CO2 adsorption and regeneration with adsorption bed capacity of 23.05 mgCO2/g sorbent. Successful CO2 adsorption via modified surface of SMAC suggested that it is viable to use sea mango as alternative precursor for activated carbon preparation and in application such as CO2 capture.

Adsorption of basic Red 46 using sea mango (Cerbera odollam) based activated carbon

Sea mango or Cerbera Odollam is another source of carbonaceous material that can be found abundantly in Malaysia. In this research, it is used as a new agricultural source of activated carbon. Sea mango activated carbon was prepared by chemical activation using potassium hydroxide (KOH). The sea mango was soaked in KOH at impregnation ratio of 1:1 and followed by carbonization at temperature of 600°C for 1 hour. The sample was then characterized using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) for surface morphology, while Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) was used to study the surface area. The result shown that sea mango activated carbon (SMAC) developed new pores on its surface and the BET surface area measured was 451.87 m2/g. The SMAC performance was then tested for the removal of Basic Red 46 in batch process. The removal of Basic Red 46 (50 mg/L, natural pH, 0.1 g SMAC) was more than 99% in 15 minutes where it reached equilibrium in 30 minutes.

Effect of Dolomite on Pyrolysis of Rice Straw

A study of catalytic pyrolysis on rice straw was carried out in a fixed-bed reactor. The objectives were to determine the effect of dolomite catalyst on the distribution of product yield and bio-oil characterization. The non-catalytic and catalytic process of rice straw was performed at the optimum conditions. The chemical characterization studies of uncatalysed bio-oil derived from pyrolysis of rice straw reflect a considerable amount of carbonyl and oxygenated compound, resulting in higher oxygen content in elemental composition. In the presence of the dolomite catalyst, the yield of bio-oil was markedly reduced and so was the oxygen content of the bio-oil itself. The product yields and quality of the resultant bio-oil were significantly affected by the use of dolomite catalyst.