Potential of using biomass based activated carbon for carbon dioxide capture

There are three major methods used to capture carbon dioxide (CO₂) which include post-combustion, pre-combustion and oxy-fuel combustion method. Post combustion method is a technically and economically possible for CO₂ capture. Generally, CO₂ is first separated from a gas stream which contains CO₂ and then captured. There are three main methods used to separate CO₂ viz., solvent separation, membrane separation and cryogenic separation. In post combustion, for capturing CO₂ different techniques such as absorption, adsorption, membrane and cryogenic distillation are used. Adsorption is the most commonly used method for CO₂ capture. Activated carbon obtained from charcoal is considered as a potential adsorbent material for CO₂ capture. In this study, potential of using activated carbon obtained from two biomass substances viz., coconut shell and palm shell were examined as the adsorbent materials which would be used to capture CO₂. For this purpose, the surface area, porosity, surface morphology and functional groups of the samples of activated carbon chosen for the study were obtained by using Brunauer-Emmet-Teller (BET), Scanning electron microscope (SEM), Thermogravimetry (TGA) and Derivative thermogravimetry (DTG) respectively. The preparation of biomass based activated carbon, adsorption properties and characterization of adsorbents were studied and the results are presented in this paper.