Adsorption of gaseous naphthalene on carbonaceous sorbent: perspective of affecting factors

Abstract

The innovative and sustainable adsorption technologies for gas phase naphthalene (GPNAP) have attracted attention as a successful method. To remove polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons effectively, biomass-based activated carbon was produced by chemical activation. The adsorption behavior of naphthalene onto produced activated carbon was also investigated by the BET-specific surface areas, total pore volumes, and average pore sizes. The resulting DCAC800 has successfully prepared a very high surface area (607.5 m(2)/g) by the weight ratio of 1:3 as the H2SO4 activation agent and the pyrolysis of the resultant material at 800 degrees C under an N-2 atmosphere. It has been determined that when the humidity in the environment is increased from 30 to 90% RH, it causes a loss of efficiency between 64-71% for DCAC500, DCAC600 DCAC700 DCAC800, and DCAC900. The adsorption experiments at 30% RH showed that the DCAC800 had a strong adsorption affinity to naphthalene and the maximum adsorption amount was shown to reach up to 296 mg/g in a fixed-bed reactor.