Production and characterization of bamboo-based activated carbon through single-step HPO activation for CO capture.

Bamboo is the fastest-growing plant and is abundant in Malaysia. It is employed as a starting material for activated carbon production and evaluated for its potential in CO capture. A single-stage phosphoric acid (HPO) activation is adopted by varying the concentrations of HPO between 50 and 70 wt.% at a constant temperature and holding time of 500°C and 120 min, respectively. The bamboo-based activated carbons are characterized in terms of product yield, surface area, and porosity, as well as surface chemistry properties. Referring to the experimental findings, the prepared activated carbons have BET surface area of >1000 m g, which implies the effectiveness of the single-stage HPO activation. Furthermore, the prepared activated carbon via 50 wt.% HPO activation shows the highest BET surface area and carbon dioxide (CO) adsorption capacity of 1.45 mmol g at 25°C/1 bar and 9.0 mmol g at 25°C/30 bar. With respect to both the characterization analysis and CO adsorption performance, it is concluded that bamboo waste conversion to activated carbon through HPO activation method is indeed promising.