Carbon Dioxide Adsorption over Activated Carbons Produced from Molasses Using H(2)SO(4), H(3)PO(4), HCl, NaOH, and KOH as Activating Agents

Cost-effective activated carbons for CO(2) adsorption were developed from molasses using H(2)SO(4), H(3)PO(4), HCl, NaOH, and KOH as activating agents. At the temperature of 0 °C and a pressure of 1 bar, CO(2) adsorption equal to 5.18 mmol/g was achieved over activated carbon obtained by KOH activation. The excellent CO(2) adsorption of M-KOH can be attributed to its high microporosity. However, activated carbon prepared using HCl showed quite high CO(2) adsorption while having very low microporosity. The absence of acid species on the surface promotes CO(2) adsorption over M-HCl. The pore size ranges that are important for CO(2) adsorption at different temperatures were estimated. The higher the adsorption temperature, the more crucial smaller pores were. For 1 bar pressure and temperatures of 0, 10, 20, and 30 °C, the most important were pores equal and below: 0.733, 0.733, 0.679, and 0.536 nm, respectively.