Advisory Committee Chair
Uday K Vaidya
Advisory Committee Members
Claudiu T Lungu
Haibin Ning
Jo Anne Goot Balanay
Selvum Pillay
Document Type
Dissertation
Date of Award
2015
Degree Name by School
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) School of Engineering
Abstract
Natural fibers including hemp, sisal, flax and industrial natural fiber waste that are con-sidered as "green" alternative sources to prepare low cost, high quality activated carbon comprise this study. Natural fibers were carbonized and subjected to chemical activation to convert them to activated carbon materials. Adsorption isotherm plots, pore size char-acteristics and the Brunauer, Emmet and Teller (BET) surface areas of natural fiber de-rived activated carbons were determined to understand the physical adsorption proper-ties. Chemical structures were determined by ultimate and proximate analyses. Porosity was visualized through SEM images. FTIR analysis was used to indicate the main func-tional groups of activated carbon samples. Industrial natural fiber waste was also used as a precursor material to fabricate activated carbon samples with chemical activation meth-od. The effect of carbonization temperatures, carbonization time and flow rate on the pore structure and physical adsorption parameters of the industrial natural fiber waste have been investigated by using a physisorption analyzer. The results have been optimized and applied for Volatile organic compound (VOC) adsorption. The adsorption properties of the prepared activated carbon samples for toluene have been investigated and com-pared with commercial adsorbents.
Recommended Citation
Dizbay Onat, Melike, "Natural Fiber Derived Activated Carbons for Industrial Emission Minimization and Capture" (2015). All ETDs from UAB. 1531.
https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/etd-collection/1531