Preparation and Characterization of Activated Carbon from Waste Food Packaging Polymers

Abstract

The two of the major challenges which we are facing in the modern era are the management of the waste plastics and the waste water from the industries. Water pollution is one of the major challenges faced by the environmental engineers today due to toxic metal releases from various industries. Among various technologies, adsorptive removal of these toxins by the usage of activated carbon as the adsorbent is more promising and economical as it is known for its high adsorption capacity. The preparation of activated carbon from waste food packaging polymers, which is about 35% of the total plastic waste accumulated, would not only reduce the voluminous quantities of plastic but also help in water treatment. A relatively new technique, Hydrothermal Carbonization (HTC), was used for the carbonization of the raw material instead of the traditional carbonization process. A pressure vessel was fabricated for HTC and the temperature set at 235 degrees celcius and the holding time was 15 hours. After processing the „hydrochar? with benzene to remove ash, dirt and iron rust (if there) it was activated with 1 M KOH for a period of 10 hours and subsequent drying for 5 days under the temperature 70 degrees celsius. Proximate analysis, Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM), Iodine Number, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), and Methylene Blue Number were the characterization techniques implemented. It was observed that the methylene blue number was high indicating the presence of high percentage of mesopores content.