ENHANCED CARBON DIOXIDE ADSORPTION USING HYDROXYAPATITE-EMBEDDED ACTIVATED CARBON PRECURSOR (COW BONE)

Abstract

Carbon dioxide has been identified as a greenhouse gas with the highest contribution to global warming. In this research, cow bone sourced from the local Minna abattoir was developed into activated carbon and assessed as a solid adsorbent for carbon dioxide adsorption. The performance of the adsorbent was tested by the adsorption of CO2 unto activated cow bone using a fixed bed adsorber. The effects of contact time, bed height and temperature of the incoming CO2 on adsorption were investigated. Temperature increases from 25oC to 40oC, and then to 55oC resulted to increases in adsorption, whereas, further increases in temperature from 55oC to 70oC, 85oC and 100oC witnessed a decrease in adsorption of CO2. The properties of the chemically activated precursor were studied through the use of characterization techniques such as Scanning Electron Micrograph (SEM), Bruneur Emett and Teller (BET), Fourier Transformed and Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and X-Ray Diffractometry (XRD). Freundlich isotherm model provided a better fit for based on the nearness of its value of the correlation coefficient (R2) to unity. Also, the kinetic analysis followed Pseudo second order kinetic models which indicated that adsorption was due to chemisorption. The value of the activation energy was 10.05 KJ/mol. This suggested that the process is partly diffusion controlled and partly chemisorption.