Sisal xylem fibre-based activated carbon fibres for fuel adsorption: effect of thermal stabilization of diammonium phosphate

Activated carbon fibres (ACFs) are considered as the next generation of activated carbon products. However, lack of structural diversity in pore structure and high prices of raw materials for ACFs has restrained the development of ACF materials. In this paper, a sisal-based activated carbon fibre (SACF) material was prepared from sisal wastes with a unique thermal stabilization treatment to maintain fibrous shapes of SACFs while dispersing in solutions, and the SACFs were prepared as raw fibre materials for fuel evaporation emissions controlling products. Experimental results of N(2) adsorption showed that SACF has a typical I-type adsorption isotherm, with specific surface area of SACF samples of approximately 1200 m(2) g(−1), and mainly microporous pore structure. Compared with commercial samples (specific surface area, 1841.29 m(2) g(−1)), the butane working capacities of SACF for advanced fuel evaporation emissions controlling product was 0.4 g/100 ml higher. Furthermore, two dynamic models, Thomas model and Clark model, were applied to adsorption breakthrough data, which showed excellent fit. And it indicated from the adsorption breakthrough curves and parameters of both models that the SACF has better performance in fuel adsorption and desorption process than the commercial samples.