Production of high surface area-activated carbons from waste bamboo scaffolding

Bamboo, indigenous to Hong Kong and China, is widely used as scaffolding in 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. Activated carbons were produced by thermal activation of bamboo with phosphoric acid. Surface areas up to 2500 m²/g were produced. In addition, two acid dyes with different molecular sizes, namely Acid Yellow 117 (AY117) and Acid Blue 25 (AB25), were used to evaluate the adsorption capacity of the produced carbons. It was found that the dye with smaller molecular size, AB25, was readily adsorbed onto the produced carbon, nearly three times higher than a commercially available carbon while the larger dye, AY117, showed little adsorption.