The production of an activated carbon from a coke precursor

Abstract

The activation of green '"'Smartie"" coke (a mixture of medium temperature pitch and waxy oil coke) was investigated in a laboratory scale fluidised bed (FB) and a rotary kiln as function of (1) heat treatment temperature (HIT) and (2) heat treatment time (HTt). Activation in the FB was more effective (in terms of surface area development) and the product obtained from this type of reactor had a larger percentage of mesopores than the products from the rotary kiln. It was possible to produce a product with an iodine number equal to 745 mg iodine per gram carbon. The study revealed that it is possible to tune the pore structure of "Smartie" coke derived activated carbons by changing the activation device and systematically changing the activation conditions. It was possible to obtain products ranging from a predominantly microporous structure to products with a predominantly mesoporous structure. Unfortunately, in comparison to commercially available activated carbons, the total surface areas were still too low and it will be necessary to perform further investigations focused on increasing the total surface areas. The gold adsorption tests performed on the activated carbon compared well to those of activated carbon currently in use in the gold industry.