Production of activated carbon from bagasse (waste) of sugarcane grown in Brazil

In order to effectively utilize the bagasse waste generated by sugar factor ies, an attempt is made to produce activated carbon from it by steam activa tion and chemical activation (with zinc chloride). Upon carbonization at te mperatures from 1073 K to 1273 K, bagasse generates char having a specific surface area of 405-600 m(2)/g and a pore volume of 0.2-0.3 ml/g, A sample of activated carbon was prepared from mechanically-mixed and compressed bag asse by activation at 1073 K for 1 hour with steam added in an amount of 3. 0 g-water/g-bagasse. The resulting activated carbon is found to have a spec ific surface area of 878 m(2)/g and a hardness of 2.5 x 10(-3) kg/cm(2), In addition, it has an adsorption equilibrium for aqueous phenol and acetic a cid which can be expressed by either a Langmuir type or Freundlich type iso therm.