Optimization of the Preparation Conditions for Activated Carbons from Sugarcane Bagasse: An Agricultural Waste

The low-cost activated carbon was prepared from sugarcane bagasse, an agricultural waste material, by chemical activation with different reagents. Orthogonal experimental design was applied to study the influence of activation temperature, activation time and chemical ratio of reagents to sugarcane bagasse on the chemical activation process of sugarcane bagasse. The optimal activated carbon was obtained using impregnation ratio of 0.39-0.78% AlCl₃ solution, 900-1000¡ãC activation temperature and 100min activation time, resulting in the carbon yield of 25.50-26.15% and the maximum adsorption of iodine of 600.57-604.46 mg/g. The activation time and temperature played an important role on the yield and the iodine number of the prepared activated carbon. The yield of the activated carbon decreased and the iodine number of the activated carbon increased with increasing carbonization time. Overall weight loss was found to increase with increasing temperature, resulting in decreasing yield of activated carbon as temperature increased. The iodine number of the prepared activated carbon increased with increasing activation temperature. In general, there were no significant changes in the shape of the XRD and FT-IR graphs and in the SEM photographs for the sugarcane bagasse precursor and the activated carbons prepared under optimum conditions.