ACTIVATED CARBON PREPARED FROM NATIVE OIL PALM EMPTY FRUIT BUNCH FIBRE

Abstract

Empty fruit bunch (EFB) fibre is one of the residues generated during Oil palm processing which accounts for the 22% of Fresh Oil Palm Fruit. Thus, potential of the fiber was studied for the production of sustainable activated carbon using Zinc Chloride [ZnCl2] and Phosphoric acid [H2PO3] as activating reagents. Surface area and porosity of the activated carbons and the copyrolysis
of fiber and Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) at 500°C char products were determined. Thus, both results show that the activated carbon prepared from Zinc chloride has higher surface area and pore volume than Phosphoric acid. Likewise, the surface area and
porosity of the co-pyrolysis char product for the fiber and LDPE samples indicated that mixture (20% LDPE and 80%EFB) has the highest BET surface area (597.27m2/g). Also, the pore sizedistribution of the prepared Activated Carbon (AC) calculated using Density Functional Theory (DFT) method indicated that both Activated carbons as well as the co-pyrolysis char product are in the range of 1.6-2.7 nm using the DFT model plot which show broad peaks in the microporous condition region. So, the fiber can produced high surface area and pore volume activated carbons through pyrolysis as well as through chemical activation.