SELF-ACTIVATION PROCESS TO FABRICATE ACTIVATED CARBON FROM KENAF

Self-activation takes advantage of the gases emitted from the pyrolysis process of biomass to activate the converted carbon. Therefore, a high-performance activated carbon is obtained with no addition of activating agents. In this study, kenaf fiber was self-activated into activated carbon. The Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) specific surface area (SA(BET)) of nonactivation and self-activation pyrolyzed at 1100 degrees C for 2 h was analyzed and obtained as 252 and 1280 m(2)/g, respectively, with 408% difference. The results showed that the highest SABET (1742 m(2)/g) was achieved when a kenaf fiber was pyrolyzed at 1100 degrees C for 10 h. A linear relationship was shown between the ln(SA(BET)) and the yield of kenaf fiber-based activated carbon through the self-activation process. The study also showed that the produced activated carbon with a 9.0% yield gave the highest surface area per gram kenaf fiber (80 m(2)/g kenaf fiber) and those with the yields between 7.2 and 13.8% produced 95% of the greatest surface area per gram kenaf fiber (76 m(2)/g kenaf fiber).