Review of oil palm-derived activated carbon for CO2 capture

Increasing ambient carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration from anthropogenic greenhouse gas emission has contributed to the growing rate of global land and ocean surface temperature. Various carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies were established to mitigate this impending issue. CO2 adsorption is gaining prominence since unlike traditional chemical absorption, it does not require high energy usage for solvent regeneration and consumption of corrosive chemical solvent. In CO2 adsorption, activated carbons show high CO2 adsorption capacity given their well-developed porous structures. Numerous researches employed oil palm wastes as low-cost precursors. This paper provides a comprehensive assessment of research works available thus far in oil palm-derived activated carbon (OPdAC) for CO2 adsorption application. First, we present the desired OPdAC characteristics and its precursors in terms of their chemical properties, elemental, and proximate compositions. This is followed by an overview of various activation methodologies and surface modification methods to attain the desired characteristics for CO2 adsorption. Then the focus turned to present available OPdAC CO2 adsorption performance and how it is affected by its physical and chemical characteristics. Based on these, we identify the challenges and the potential development in different aspects such as precursor selection, process development, and optimization of parameter. A pilot scale production cost analysis is also presented to compare various activation and surface modification methods, so that the appropriate method can be selected for CO2 adsorption.