Characterization of Activated Carbon Prepared from Chicken Waste and Coal

Activated carbons (ACs) were prepared from chicken waste (CW) and coal (E-coal) blended at the ratios of 100:0, 80:20, 50:50, 20:80, and 0:100. The process included carbonization in flowing gaseous nitrogen (300 mL min−1) at ca. 430 °C for 60 min and successive steam activation (0.1 mL min−1 water injection with a flow of N2 at 100 mL min−1) at 650 °C for 30 min. Chicken waste is low in sulfur content but is high in volatile matter (∼55 wt %), and ACs with higher specific surface area were more successfully obtained by mixing with coal. The specific surface area of the CW/Coal blend AC can be estimated by SSA BET = −65.8x 2 + 158x + 168, where SSA BET is the specific surface area in m2 g−1 as determined by the BET method using CO2 as the adsorbent, where x is the coal fraction by weight in the CW/coal blend ranging from 0.0 to 1.0 (e.g., x = 0.0 signifies the blend contains no coal and x = 1.0 signifies the blend consists of 100% coal).