Physical synthesis and characterization of activated carbon from date seeds for CO2 capture

In this study, we report the use of activated carbon synthesized from the seeds of popular local date fruits in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as potential sorbents for carbon dioxide (CO2) adsorption applications. Activated carbons were prepared by physical methods involving furnace pyrolysis and followed by activation under CO2 atmosphere in the temperature range 600-900 degrees C. The evaluation of adsorption capacity of the activated carbon was supported by different characterization studies including thermogravimetric and elemental analysis, surface area and porosity measurements, infrared spectra analysis, and scanning electron microscopy. Heats of adsorption measurements were performed using a micro reaction calorimeter. Results indicate that the optimum temperature for pyrolysis of raw date seeds is 800 degrees C with activation period of one hour. Physically activated samples with greater pore characteristics had higher CO2 loading capacity at room temperatures, with maximum loading of 141.14 mg-CO2/g-AC for materials pyrolysed at 800 degrees C and activated at 900 degrees C. This was significantly higher than commercially obtained activated carbon samples (96.21 mg-CO2/g-AC). Overall, the date seed synthesized AC by physical method has high CO2 loading; moreover, the abundance and low cost of these date seeds may make the derived sorbent suitable for CO2 capture applications.