1.1 Introduction
Synthesis of coal activated carbon from coal involves the production of activates carbon from coal and the use of it as on adsorbent or adsorptive material which is used in bleaching processes.
An adsorptive material or adsorbent is this a solid which is able to adsorb a considerable amount of gas or liquid. The gas or liquid been adsorbed is referred to as the adsorbed. Adsorbed material may occur nature all or may be prepared synthetically.
The naturally occurring carbonados material such as coal, wood, coconut shell or bones are decomposed in an inert atmosphere at a temperature of about 500k. The product will not be porous so it will need additional treatment or activation to generate a system of fine pores. The carbon can be produced in the activated state by treating the raw material with chemical like zinc chloride or phosphoric acid before carbonizing.
Activated carbon has a surface area, typically of 106 m2/kg mostly associated with a set of pores about 2nm in diameter. Though there is likely to be another set of pores about 100nm in diameter, not contributing much the surface area.
Activated carbon may be used as a powder, in which from it is mixed in with the liquid to be treated, and then removed by filtration. It is also be used in granular form.
Hence by carefully choosing the starting material and the activated process it can be possible to generate in carbon a pore system with a narrow spore of pore size. This activated carbon can be synthesized from coal.
1.2 Scope / Objective
The scope/objective of this project word according to the topic “synthesis of coal activated carbon from Enugu using any available method of production, vertical, rotary, horizontal and fluidized bed method could be used in the production of the activated carbon from the coal.
It is also limited to the product of activated carbon in powdery form and by synthetic chemical process (using zinc chloride and phosphoric acid). Thus any of the above method could also be used for the carbonization any gasification processes.
The activated carbon produced can be used for dry-cleaning solvent in pharmaceuticals, sugar decolorizing drinking water purification and above all edible oil and fat refining.
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