title: Sustainable development of tyre char-based activated carbons with different textural properties for value-added applications.
abstract: This paper aims at the sustainable development of activated carbons for value-added applications from the waste tyre pyrolysis product, tyre char, in order to make pyrolysis economically favorable. Two activation process parameters, activation temperature (900, 925, 950 and 975 °C) and residence time (2, 4 and 6 h) with steam as the activating agent have been investigated. The textural properties of the produced tyre char activated carbons have been characterized by nitrogen adsorption-desorption experiments at -196 °C. The activation process has resulted in the production of mesoporous activated carbons confirmed by the existence of hysteresis loops in the N2 adsorption-desorption curves and the pore size distribution curves obtained from BJH method. The BET surface area, total pore volume and mesopore volume of the activated carbons from tyre char have been improved to 732 m(2)/g, 0.91 cm(3)/g and 0.89 cm(3)/g, respectively. It has been observed that the BET surface area, mesopore volume and total pore volume increased linearly with burnoff during activation in the range of experimental parameters studied. Thus, yield-normalized surface area, defined as the surface area of the activated carbon per gram of the precursor, has been introduced to optimize the activation conditions. Accordingly, the optimized activation conditions have been demonstrated as an activation temperature of 975 °C and an activation time of 4 h.
authors.affiliation: Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay Road, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Pejman
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hadi
authors.affiliation: Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay Road, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Kit Ying
authors.initials: KY
authors.lastname: Yeung
authors.affiliation: School of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Jiaxin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: School of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Huaimin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay Road, Hong Kong; Division of Sustainability, College of Science and Engineering, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Education City, Qatar Foundation, Doha, Qatar. Electronic address: kemckayg@ust.hk.
authors.forename: Gordon
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: McKay
mesh_terms: D001336:Automobiles; D002606:Charcoal / Q000737:chemistry*; D006358:Hot Temperature; D006801:Humans; D017745:Incineration; D007220:Industrial Waste; D059027:Recycling / Q000379:methods; D012408:Rubber / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D007220:Industrial Waste; D002606:Charcoal; D012408:Rubber
keywords: Activated carbons; Steam activation; Sustainable development; Textural properties; Waste tyres