Paper Title
Solar Energy-assisted Activated Carbon Production
Abstract
This paper presented using parabolic trough collector (PTC) for reducing energy consumption in activated carbon
production. Solar hydrothermal carbonization reactor using PTC with reflector size of 2 m2 was designed and constructed
for hydrochar production that used as activated carbon substrate. The result of testing the reactor showed that the reactor
could produce the highest temperature and pressure of 190˚C and 1.1 MPa, respectively. The produced hydrochar using the
reactor contained fixed carbon of 23.74% and high heating value (HHV) of 23.13 MJ/kg. The hydrochar was further
activated by carbonization process under oxygen less condition at 600˚C about 1 h for cracking into activated carbon as a
final product. The produced activated carbon contained fixed carbon of 76.11%, carbon composition of 83.12% and HHV of
30.92 MJ/kg. It was also observed that pore size of final product was about 1-4 μm which was in a range of absorber
materials. Moreover, the Solar hydrothermal carbonization reactor could reduce time in activated process for 1 h that helped
to decrease energy in activated carbon production for 50%.
Keywords - Activated carbon, Biomass, Hydrothermal, Parabolic Trough Collector, Solar energy