Activated Carbon Fiber Derived from Pyrolysis of Palm Fiber

Palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) is an abundant by-product resulted from massive palm oil production in Malaysia as one of the world's largest exporter and second largest producer of palm oil. This agricultural waste is usually disposed in nature, burnt in opened atmospheres, or used as a fuel for boilers. Such conventional handlings of EFB have created environmental concerns to Malaysia such as air pollution and release of green house gases (CH4) and CO2). This study made use of such biomass in the production of cost effective nanoporous material, namely activated carbon fiber (ACF) which able to diminish the problem of waste disposal, and at the same time to turn waste into wealth. This is especially beneficial when the ACF is used for environmental friendly application such as adsorbed natural gas (ANG) technology. ACF was formed from carbonaceous materials via process of carbonisation and activation. Both chemical and physical activations were carried out by using H2SO4 and CO2, respectively. In pyrolysis, carbonisation was conducted at temperatures i.e. 400, 600, 800 and 1000 degrees C in nitrogen (N-2) atmosphere. Surface morphologies, microstructures, pore structures and surface chemistry of these samples were investigated for the characterisation of EFB fiber-derived ACF. Above 80% of the total pore volumes for the samples were contributed by the micropore as the major pore components in the ACF produced. The samples presented a good methane adsorption capacity up to 23.8 mmol/g at 203K. The initial heat of methane adsorption was 21.5 KJ/mol K and revealed that methane adsorption took place solely on a physisorption basis. The samples exhibited an high BET surface area, dominant micropore volume up and narrow pore size distribution in micro range (< 1.5 nm).