Abstract
Bamboo, indigenous to Hong Kong and China, is widely used as scaffolding in local construction and building projects. Over 50,000 tonnes of bamboo scaffolding waste is disposed as landfill waste each year. These wastes can be used as a sustainable raw material for the production of a range of high value added activated carbons for various applications e.g. adsorbents, catalysts or catalyst supports. Super-high surface area activated carbons were produced by thermal activation of waste bamboo scaffolding with phosphoric acid. Surface areas up to 2500m2/g were produced. In order to evaluate the adsorption capacity of the produced carbons, dye adsorption was conducted on the carbons produced and compared with a commercially available carbon. Two basic dyes, namely, Basic Yellow 11 (BY11) and Maxilon Red GRL 200% (MR) were used. It was found that both basic dyes were readily adsorbed onto the produced carbon and were up to three times higher than the commercial carbon. In addition, experimental results were fitted to equilibrium isotherm models including Langmuir, Freundlich, and Redlich-Peterson.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Water Production and Wastewater Treatment |
| Publisher | Nova Science Publishers, Inc. |
| Pages | 117-132 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781617285035 |
| Publication status | Published - Jan 2011 |
| Externally published | Yes |