EFFECTS OF SODIUM AND CALCIUM IN LIGNITE ON THE PERFORMANCE OF ACTIVATED CARBON PRODUCTS
Powdered activated carbon (PAC) has traditionally been used by the water treatment industry for the removal of compounds contributing to taste and odor problems. PAC also has the potential to remove naturally occurring organic matter (NOM) from raw waters prior to disinfection, thus controlling the formation of regulated disinfection by-products (DBPs). Many small water systems are currently using PAC for taste and odor control and have the potential to use PAC for controlling DBPs. The Energy & Environmental Research Center has been working on the development of a PAC product to remove NOM from surface water supplies to prevent the formation of carcinogenic DBPs during chlorination. During previous studies, the sodium and calcium content of the lignites showed a significant effect on the sorption capacity of the activated carbon product. As much as a 130% increase in the humic acid sorption capacity of a PAC produced from a high-sodium-content lignite was observed. During this study, activated carbons were prepared from three coals representing high-sodium, low-sodium--low-calcium, and high-calcium compositions in two steps, an initial char formation followed by mild activation with steam to avoid excessive burnout. This set of carbons was characterized with respect to physical and chemical properties. The BET (Brunauer-Emmett-Teller) nitrogen adsorption isotherms gave relatively low surface areas (ranging from 245 to 370 m{sup 2}/g). The lowest-BET area was obtained for the high-sodium carbon, which can be attributed to enlargement of micropores as a result of sodium-catalyzed gasification reaction of the carbon structure. This hypothesis is consistent with the scanning electron microscopy microprobe analyses, which show that in both the coal and the activated carbon from this coal, the sodium is distributed over both the carbon structure and the mineral particles. Thus it is initially associated with carboxylate groups on the coal and then as sodium oxide or other active form in close proximity to the carbon and is, therefore, readily available for catalysis of gasification. Humate adsorption isotherms for the high-sodium carbon gave superior results as defined by very high intercepts in modified Freundlich plots. Thus the high-sodium carbon will be considerably more effective in reducing the humate concentration for a given carbon dosage. Analysis of adsorption isotherms indicated the results were consistent with the hypothesis that only the larger pores are effective for binding the large humate molecules, and that the larger pores developed during activation of the high-sodium char give the appropriate macropore structure for humate binding. Toluene adsorption isotherms indicated that the high-calcium carbon and the low-calcium, low-sodium carbon were superior to the high-sodium carbon for small molecules in aqueous solution, but not as effective as a Calgon F-400 commercial activated carbon. This is consistent with the low-BET surface areas observed for the lignite-derived carbons, and thus there are a lower number of sites for binding the smaller toluene molecule in these carbons.
- Research Organization:
- University of North Dakota (US)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FC26-98FT40320
- OSTI ID:
- 828072
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: 1 Dec 2001
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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