Production of Granular Activated Carbon from Agricultural Wastes and Determination of their Physical, Chemical and Adsorption Properties

The aim of this study is to produce activated carbons with good mechanical strength and high adsorption capacities toward various organics from food wastes such as walnut, almond, hazelnut shells and apricot stones. Turkey has huge amounts of these wastes in canning industry. The chemical activation with ZnCl2 was preferred to manufacture activated carbons. The best activation temperature and time were determined. Granular activated carbons were discussed with respect to their physical, chemical, surface area and adsorption properties. For all raw materials, the specific surface areas of greater than 730 m(2) g(-1) were reached. As a result of the adsorption studies, adsorption capacities were in order of hazelnut> apricot stones> walnut> almond. The correlation coefficients obtained from Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms are in good agreement with the experimental results.