Experimental optimization of activated carbon synthesis by the simplex search method

To compete with the low price of petrol, thermochemical conversion of biomass should be viewed as both an energy and chemical source. Catalytic pyrolysis can produce activated carbon as a chemical and energy as a by-product, if inexpensive catalysts are available. In this paper, two parameters, namely NaCl (used as catalyst) and temperature, were found to affect the quality of the activated carbon produced from coconut shell and sawdust. Without mathematical modelling of the process, the Simplex search method led to the following maximum iodine numbers: for coconut shell, 685·8 mg/g at 794°C and 3·15 g NaCl/g coconut shell; for sawdust, 581·1 mg/g at 751°C and 5·52 g NaCl/g sawdust.