Production Of Activated Carbon From Municipal Solid Organic Wastes

Staged combustion of the municipal solid wastes (MSWs), by separating pyrolysis with char combustion, can significantly improve the efficiency of incineration. Moreover, mesopore activated carbon may be used to adsorb dioxins produced during incineration of MSWs. Based on the analysis of thermal conversion characteristics of MSWs, a new process to dispose MSWs has been proposed. In the process, mesopore activated carbon (MSOW-AC) is produced from the pyrolysis products of three typical municipal solid organic wastes (MSOWs) components - papers, plastics and woods, which can be used as an adsorbent for dioxins.Experimental results indicate that the activated carbon with mesopore rich structure can be produced from MSOWs, which also has high adsorbability. The main results are summarized as follows: (1) Micropore volume increases with an increase of the ratio of pyrolysis products of sawdust (cSD) to those of paper (cPA) with a constant fraction of pyrolysis products of plastics (cPL), while mesopore volume changes slightly, i.e. the ratio of cSD to cPA mainly affects the micropore volume. (2) The cPL content has significant effect on the mesopore volume with a constant ratio of cSD to cPA. The mesopore volume firstly increases and then decreases with an increase of the cPL content, whereas the micropore volume decreases slightly as the cPL content increases. Adsorbability decreases as cPL content increases. (3) Adsorbability and micropore volume firstly increase and then decrease with an increase of the pyrolysis temperature, and mesopore volume decreases with the pyrolysis temperature. (4) At different prepared conditions, the mesopore volume and mesoporosity of MSOW-AC can be 0.357cm~3/g and 45%, respectively. The mesopore diameters of the activated carbons are always centered in 3-4 nm. (5) The mesopore are mainly formed by the interstices which are...