WOLLO UNIVERSITY

KOMBOLCHA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (KIOT)

SCHOOL OF MECHANICAL AND CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING (PROCESS
ENGINEERING)

PRODUCTION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF ACTIVATED CARBON FROM

SAWDUST ACTIVATED VIA PHOSPHORIC ACID

Prepared by
1. LUELSEGED FENTAW
2. ABEBE FENTIE
3. MERKEB SHIFERIE

Kombolcha, Ethiopia
May,2013 E.C
 PRODUCTION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF ACTIVATED CARBON FROM
SAWDUST ACTIVATED VIA PHOSPHORIC ACID

Submitted by
NAME ID NO SEC
1. ABEBE FENTIE WOUR/0417/09 C
2. LUELSEGED FENTAW WOUR/0669/09 C
3. MERKEB SHIFERIE WOUR/0440/09 B

A project proposal Submitted to the School of Chemical and Mechanical Engineering of Kombolcha
Institute of Technology, Wollo University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for
the Degree of Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering in the
Department of Chemical Engineering

Advisor signature date

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 Acknowledgements
First of all, we would like to special thanks our GOD almighty for helping and supporting us to
the study of start to end the proposal. Next to GOD we would like to express, and all of mental,
ideally supported our project.

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 Summary of proposal
Activated carbon is one of the most important micro porous adsorption medium that has a
complex structure primarily composed of carbon atoms and suitable for many applications
especially in pollution control systems to remove variety of dissolved organics. Accordingly, the
demand for activated carbon along with its price will be increased, which needs a search of its
alternative production system from raw materials having high carbon content, low ash, easily
available plus low cost, and will be an attractive technology. Hence, this research proposal will
address preparation of sawdust derived activated carbon in the presence of phosphoric acid
activating agent, and assessed its potential application for adsorption of methyl blue from
aqueous solution. The production method will be started from proximate composition analysis to
know the percentage of organic as well as inorganics components, activation of the precursor
for adsorption.

Table of Contents
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Acknowledgement........................................................................................................................................i
Summary of proposal..................................................................................................................................ii
1.Introduction..............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Background.......................................................................................................................................1
1.2 Statement of Problem........................................................................................................................2
1.3 Objective...........................................................................................................................................3
1.3.1 General objective........................................................................................................................3
1.3.2 Specific objective........................................................................................................................3
1.4 Significance of Study.........................................................................................................................3
1.5 Scope of the study..............................................................................................................................3
2.Literature Review.....................................................................................................................................4
2.1 History of Activated Carbon..............................................................................................................4
2.1.1 Activated Carbon........................................................................................................................4
2.1.2 Sawdust......................................................................................................................................5
2.1.3 Wood Sawdust Properties...........................................................................................................5
2.2 Properties of Activated Carbon..........................................................................................................6
2.2.1 Physical Properties......................................................................................................................6
2.2.2 Chemical Properties of Activated Carbon...................................................................................7
2.3 Classification of Activated Carbon....................................................................................................8
2.4 Applications of Activated Carbon......................................................................................................8
3.Material and Method................................................................................................................................9
3.1 Material.............................................................................................................................................9
3.1.1 Raw material...............................................................................................................................9
3.1.2 Chemicals Used..........................................................................................................................9
3.1.3 Equipment’s................................................................................................................................9
3.2 Methods...........................................................................................................................................10
4. Work plan..............................................................................................................................................11
4.1 Work plan each activity...................................................................................................................11
5.Budget estimation of the project.............................................................................................................12
Reference...................................................................................................................................................13

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 List of table
Table 1 :- Contents of important component of sawdust and their carbon content (Pier & Kelly, 1997).....5
Table 2 :- The elemental component of content...........................................................................................5
Table 3 :- Work plan each activity.............................................................................................................10
Table 4 :- Estimate of budget to produce activated carbon........................................................................11

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 List of Abbreviation and Acronyms
AC= Activated Carbon
SD= saw dust
IR=Impregnation Ratio
C: N = Carbon to Nitrogen ratio
PAC= powdered Activated Carbon
MC=Moisture Content

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 1.Introduction

1.1 Background
Activated carbon is one of the most important micro porous adsorbents due to its
tremendous adsorptive capacity, an affinity for variety of dissolved organics and ability
to be custom-tailored to suit specific application. Activated carbon is a carbon-rich material
processed to have many low-volume pores that could increase specific surface area for
adsorption or chemical reactions (Mazlan et al., 2016). Activated carbons can be produced from
a variety of raw materials. Of these, coal and agricultural wastes such as sawdust and coconut
shell are the most commonly used precursors (Zhang et al., 2008). Activated carbons are
commonly used in water and wastewater treatment, in the food processing industry such as sugar
refining, and in pharmaceutical purifications (Ahmedna, 1998).
It is particular interest to select the sawdust as the raw material to make activated
carbon instead of other abundant sources such as clay minerals, rice husks, nut shells, etc.
large volume of these residues in the form of sawdust, off cut and wood
barks were produced by wood based industries. Thus, one of the cost effective way is to convert
the wood residue to activated carbon (Moreno-Castilla et al., 2001).
Pyrolysis is the process where the carboneous source materials are heated, decomposed and
converted to carbonized material in the absent of air. Then, the process is continued by activation
step which will increase the surface area of the carbonized material. At present, there are 2
different activation processes: (1) steam activation, and (2) chemical activation. In steam
activation, steam is introduced in temperature range 600- 1200oC, whereas in chemical
activation, raw material is impregnated with strong dehydrating agent such as phosphoric acid
(H3PO4) or zinc chloride (ZnCl2) and then heat to 500-800oC to activate the carbon (Lam &
Zakaria, 2008).
The importance and relevance of activated carbon to an ever growing society cannot be
overemphasized considering its enormous uses. Its uses range from liquid phase to gaseous phase
applications. Activated carbons are highly porous and adsorbent materials. They have wide
applications in domestic, commercial and industrial settings. In the food industry, activated
carbon is used in de-colorization, deodorization and taste removal. It is used to remove heavy
metals and organic contaminants from liquids. Activated carbon is used in water de-chlorination
and processing of foods. It is also used in medicine for adsorption of harmful chemicals and

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drugs. In gas cleaning applications, activated carbon is extensively used in air filters at industrial
level as well as in general air conditioning application (MASKAPAI et al., 2013).
The physical properties of carbon are important in determining which form is best suited for
specific application. For instance, abrasion resistance or hardness of activated carbon will be
important if the carbon is to be used in application where frequent back- washing is required.
Density characteristics can also be a major consideration for specific applications. Iodine value is
an important characteristic of activated carbon. The iodine value gives a measure of the micro
pore volume of carbon and it approximates the total internal surface of the carbon. The ash level
reflects the purity of the carbon. The ash content can be important in water filtration applications.
Activated carbon with high phosphate ash can brings about cloudy water during use because the
ash could combine with metal ions to form magnesium or calcium precipitates. The knowledge
of the physical and activity characteristics of activated carbons will help in determining where
each can be better applied. (Yusufu M. I., 2012).
1.2 Statement of Problem
The demand for activated carbon is increasing owing to the increased utility of the carbon
materials in pollution control. As the applications of activated carbon are immense, the gap
between demand and supply is ever widening. As a result, cost of activated carbon is growing.
This is due to the use of non-renewable and relatively expensive starting material such as either
coal based or petroleum pitch based which are prone to exhaustion and unjustified in pollution
control applications (Colomba, 2015).
In Ethiopia some newly developed factories utilize activated carbon as one of their water
treatment unit. These newly developed factories and indirectly Ethiopia incur great amount of
money on importing activated carbon. As import data presented in official website of Ethiopian
revenue and custom authority indicates, utilization of activated carbon in Ethiopian industries is
growing faster in recent years. As a result of this, production of activated carbon from a biomass
waste can be seen as one way of reducing costs that will be incurred for importing activated
carbon.
Although Ethiopia imports AC, it has potentially raw materials to locally produce it. The
incredible versatility of the product makes producing it possible in many different areas
depending on what row material is available. Some of the raw materials for activated carbon

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production are agricultural waste such as sesame husk, corn comb, coffee husk, spent grain,
macadamia nutshell, sawdust etc.
1.3 Objective

1.3.1 General objective

The general objective of this study is Production and characterization of Activated Carbon from
Wood Waste (sawdust) activated via phosphoric acid.

1.3.2 Specific objective

The specific objective includes
 Analyze the proximate composition of precursor
 Preparation of activated carbon, and investigate the effects of selected parameters
(activation time, impregnation ratio and activation temperature) on the adsorbent
performance.
 Optimize the process parameters (time, impregnation ratio and temperature) for the
optimum adsorption performance of Activated Carbon. (in what method?)
 Characterize the product against the standard commercial Activated Carbon.

1.4 Scope of the study

The scope of this project is to produce the activated carbon which make from sawdust (wood
waste) with suitable chemical activator (phosphoric acid), it will study and using experiment
result, it will be scaled up industry level production and increase the interesting demand.
1.5 Significance of Study
The output of this study will;

 Introduce the sawdust derived activated carbon as a local raw material for use in
Ethiopian manufacturing industry.

 have a foreign exchange saving effect to the country by substituting the current imports,

 Can create job opportunity for many persons, create forward and backward linkage with
the manufacturing sector and also generates income for the government in terms of tax
revenue and payroll tax.

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 2. Literature Review
2.1 History of Activated Carbon
Activated carbon was first generated industrially at the first part of the 20th century, when
carbon activated from vegetable material was produced for use in sugar refining. Powered
activated carbon was first produced commercially in Europe in the early 19th century, using
wood as a raw material. During the First World War (1914), steam activation of coconut shell
and almond shell char was developed in the United States for use in gas masks. It has been used
subsequently for water treatment, solvent recovery and air purification.
In recent years, the use of activated carbon for the removal of priority organic pollutants has
become very common. The use of carbon extends back far in time. Charcoal was used for
drinking water filtration by the ancient Hindus in India, and carbonized wood was used as a
medical adsorbent and purifying agent by the Egyptians as early as 1500 BC.(Mustafa, 2011).

2.1.1 Activated Carbon

Activated carbon is a carbonaceous, highly porous adsorptive medium that has a complex
structure composed primarily of carbon atoms (Joiner, 2009). The networks of pores in activated
carbons are channels created within a rigid skeleton of disordered layers of carbon atoms, linked
together by chemical bonds, stacked unevenly, creating a highly porous structure of nooks,
crannies, cracks and crevices between the carbon layers. It is also a unique and effective
adsorbent for the separation and removal of unwanted organic matters from industrial effluents.
Fossil materials like mike coal, Spanish HV bituminous coal char, semi anthracite char, coal and
pitch coke, the shell-based agricultural wastes like coconut shell, palm shell, almond shell and
agricultural waste materials like olive seed waste residue, pine waste, pine wood and wood char
(wood sawdust) have been used as a raw material. In the present work, a bio waste product from
furniture’s and wood processing factory in Kombalcha town sawdust (SD) has been used as the
precursor to produce it.

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2.1.2 Sawdust
Sawdust or wood dust is a by-product of cutting, grinding, drilling or pulverizing wood with saw
or other tool. It is composed of fine particles of wood. It could also be derived from certain
animals, birds and insects which live in wood, such as the woodpecker and carpenter ant. Wood
residues contain 70 to 80% total carbohydrate. Millions of fibrous materials like saw dust is
wasted away every year from industrial sites like sugar mills and saw mills. Sawdust is the
powdery wood waste produced by cutting wood with a saw. The size of the sawdust particles
depends on the kind of wood from which the sawdust is obtained and also on the size of the teeth
of the saw. In wood industries such as the furniture industry or paper industry, a great amount of
wood flakes and wood flours in the form of sawdust are always found as wastes. These unused
materials are usually applied as a fuel source or for the manufacture of plywood (Atlı Burcu,
2010).

2.1.3 Wood Sawdust Properties

The chemical composition of wood is an important parameter in determining the energy
value of wood materials. Wood is a composite of three basic polymers, namely cellulose
(C6H10O5), lignin (C6H10O3) (OCH3) and hemicelluloses such as xylem (C5H8O4) (Sandra Diana,
Faculty of Chemical & Natural Resources Engineering, University).Sawdust is a carbonaceous
organic substance which has a very high carbon to nitrogen ratio (typically C: N in sawdust is
300:1). Table 1 and Table 2 show the carbonaceous properties and composition of sawdust.
Table 1 :- Contents of important component of sawdust and their carbon content (Pier & Kelly, 1997).

Cellulose/
C in C in cellulose/
Lignin in C in hemicellulosehemice
Component fresh hemicelluloses/
Sawdust Lignin lluloses/other
Sawdust Other organics
organics
% by weight 51.9 30.8 51.8 69.2 52

Table 2 :- The elemental component of content

Element Carbon Hydrogen Oxygen Nitrogen

Composition (%) 48-54 5.8-6.3 39-45 0.1-0.3

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Due to this composition, Sawdust contains a lot of carbon content and is therefore ideal for
making inexpensive activated carbon.
2.2 Properties of Activated Carbon
Activated carbon is not a pure carbon. It contains other elements in various proportions
depending on the source material and on the mechanism of its production. Such other elements,
which are chemically combined with the carbon atoms, include hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen,
sulphur, etc. This is as a result of the fact that the nature of the starting material is directly
reflected in the final product(Lundgren, 2016). The properties of commercially available
activated carbons are responsible for their use as either gas-phase or liquid-phase adsorbents.
These properties are grouped into two broad classes; physical and chemical properties (Okoye,
2010).

2.2.1 Physical Properties

Industrial applications always require the determination of the physical properties and adsorption
capacity of the activated carbons. There are many standard testing methods that are in use to
determine the physical properties of AC. Some physical properties that are usually used by
industrial processes to determine the quality of the activated carbons are: (Okoye, 2010)

 Forms
Activated carbons are available in different forms such as symmetrical pellets, irregularly shaped
granules, powder and specialties like pre-formed shapes, example, wool and slurry for coating
supports. The major forms of activated carbon are the powdered form, the granular form and the
pellets (Okoye, 2010)
 Particle size
This property is important due to the fact that adsorption rate varies inversely with particle size.
An increase in particle size will lead to a decrease in adsorption rate while a decrease in particle
size will favour high adsorption rate (Okoye, 2010).
 Abrasion resistance
Abrasion resistance refers to a carbons ability to withstand degradation during handling and
expressed in terms of abrasion number or handling number. It is an important indicator of an
activated carbons ability to maintain its physical integrity and withstand frictional forces
imposed by backwashing and other factors (Okoye, 2010).

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 Bulk density
Apparent or bulk density is a measure of the weight of material that can be contained in a given
volume under specified conditions. This property among others is useful in the determination
carbon needed for a process or determination of the packing volume (Mustafa, 2011).
 Surface area
Activated carbons have very large surface area, typically ranging from 500 – 1400 m 2 g-1. This
is an important property of activated carbon as it greatly affects the adsorptive properties of the
carbon. Increase in surface area enhances the adsorptive capabilities of activated carbon by
exposing a wide surface for physical as well as chemical adsorptions (Okoye, 2010).

2.2.2 Chemical Properties of Activated Carbon

The adsorptive properties of activated carbon are determined not only by its pore structure but
also by its chemical composition. The elemental composition of activated carbon typically
comprises 85-90 % C, 0.5 % H, 0.5 % N, 5 % O, and 1 % S, the balance of 5-6 % representing
inorganic (ash) constituents. However, these values cannot serve as specification for activated
carbon's quality or properties (Lundgren, 2016).
 pH
The pH of an activated carbon is a measure of the surface acidity/basicity of the carbon. This is
the pH of a suspension of the activated carbon in distilled water. A carbon pH of 6-8 is
acceptable for most application such as sugar decolorization, water treatment, etc (Okoye, 2010).
 Moisture content
This is determined by drying an isolated portion of an activated carbon in an oven at 105 –
110oC until constant weight is attained. This property is important in adsorptive capacity test
(Okoye, 2010).

 Inorganic constituents

Activated carbons contain different inorganic substances, which originate from the raw materials
used and also from the ingredients added during the processing of the carbon. However, the total

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amount of these inorganic constituents varies from one grade of activated carbon to another
(Okoye, 2010).

2.3 Classification of Activated Carbon

Activated carbon materials are usually classified based on their preparation methods or surface
characteristics such as effective surface area per gram activated carbon, pore diameter and
volume. They can also be classified based on their physical characteristics. Some examples for
these classifications are :
Powdered activated carbon (PAC)
They are formed as powders or fine granules with a size of less than 1.00 mm and the pore
diameter is between 15 and 25μm. That is why they have a small diffusion distance and a large
ratio of surface area to volume.
2.4 Applications of Activated Carbon
Activated carbon is used in gas purification, gold purification, metal extraction, water
purification, medicine, sewage treatment, air filters in gas masks and respirators, filters in
compressed air and many other applications (Pier & Kelly, 1997).

Environmental field
activated carbon adsorption has numerous applications in removing pollutants from air or
water streams both in the field and in industrial processes such as spill cleanup, groundwater
remediation, drinking water filtration, air purification, volatile organic compounds capture from
painting, dry cleaning, gasoline dispensing operations, and other process (MASKAPAI et al.,
2013).

Medical application
In medical applications activated carbon is used to treat poisonings and overdoses following oral
ingestion. It is thought to bind to poison and prevent its absorption by the gastrointestinal tract.
In cases of suspected poisoning, medical personnel administer activated charcoal on the scene or
at a hospital's emergency department (Mazlan et al., 2016)
Water Purification

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Activated carbon water filters have been used in home water purification systems primarily to
remove taste and odor. Taste and odor, although undesirable, are generally not considered
unhealthy (Atlı Burcu, 2010).

3.Material and Method

3.1 Material

3.1.1 Raw material

The main raw material of this project is sawdust (wood wastes).

3.1.2 Equipment’s

 Furnace: used for carbonization of impregnated sawdust.

 Electrical oven: - it utilized for drying of sawdust, AC and impregnated sawdust.

 Beaker: - have many purposes.

 pH meter: - to measure the pH of AC.

 Sieve: - Used to uniform the size of sawdust.

 Desiccators: - for cooling purpose.

 Analytical balance: - to measure the mass of the measured materials.

 Thermometer: - measured the temperature of water.

 Stirrer: - to agitate the solution of water, H3PO4 and sawdust.

 Filter paper: - for separation purpose.

 Cylinder: - measure the volume of liquids.

 Ceramic crucible: - for holding of samples.

 Water bath:- to allow the chemical agent to go inside

 UV- spectrometer :- to check absorption

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3.1.3 Chemicals Used
 Phosphoric acid (H3PO4): -an activating agent in order to dehydrate the carbon skeleton.
 Distilled Water (H2O): - used to remove the excess chemical after activation.

 Methyl blue: - to indicate the pH value.

3.2 Methods
Raw material preparation
The raw material that is sawdust will be collected from Kombolcha wood furniture house. The
sawdust will washed to remove unwanted impurities, and the washed saw dust was dried at 80⁰C
until the sawdust completely dried, and then sieved in to a uniform size.
Chemical Activation
In chemical activation carbonization and activation step takes place simultaneously.
Chemical activation involves the impregnation of the carbonized material by mixing with an
excess amount of phosphoric acid (H3PO4) in order to dehydrate the carbon skeleton that
subsequently influences the pyro-lytic decomposition of the raw material. The mixture is dried at
110⁰C in an electrical oven for the removal of moisture content. The impregnated material then
transferred in to a furnace for carbonization or pyrolysis of the dried impregnation sawdust. In
the pyrolysis process the carbon reached organic material (sawdust) converted in to activated
carbon at a temperature of 600⁰ C.
Washing
Activated carbon at this stage then washed with distilled water. The washing helps to
remove the excess chemical after activation.
Drying
The activated carbon preparatory stage is completed by drying the washed samples in an
electrical oven at 110⁰C for 24 hours to remove the moisture content.

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 4. Work plan

4.1 Work plan each activity

Table 3 :- Work plan each activity
Duration of time

Month March April May June July

Activity
Week 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4

Brain
storming
Statement
problem
Back ground,
introduction
and objective
Literature
review,
methodology
Project
proposal
writing
Raw material
collection
Laboratory
work

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Material and
energy
balance
Submitted
date

5.Budget estimation of the project

The project need cost and personal effort to produce activated carbon. The production cost
activated carbon show in table.

Table 4 :- Estimate of budget to produce activated carbon

№ Item Cost (birr)

1 Transport 50
2 Food, coffee, tea 100
3 Laboratory -
4 Printing, binding and copying document 150
5 Raw material 200
6 Internet for data 50
Total 550

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Properties and Their. 10, 30–87.
Atlı Burcu. (2010). production and characterization of bio oil from wood sawdust via fast
pyrolysis. Faculty of Chemical & Natural Resources Engineering, December, 7–15.
Colomba, A. (2015). Production of Activated Carbons from Pyrolytic Biochar for Environmental
Applications. PhD Thesis, 92(August), 47–74.
Joiner, M. C. (2009). Optimization of Activated Carbon for Natural Color Removal. 4, 1–56.
Lam, M. K., & Zakaria, R. (2008). Production of activated carbon from sawdust using fluidized
bed reactor. International Conference on Environment, 2008(Icenv), 12 p.
Lundgren, S. (2016). 1. Introduction 11. Chemistry of Water Treatment, 1–89.
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MASKAPAI, A. H. P. K., MURAH, L. P. J. P. B., 1999, D. D. U.-U. N. 8 T., & KONSUMEN,
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