Pore structure of carbon granules prepared from slow pyrolysis of oil palm empty fruit bunch fibres

Porous carbon granules were prepared from the h2so4 treated carbon pyro-polymers from oil palm empty fruit bunch (efb) fibres. the carbon pyro-polymers were prepared by a slow pyrolysis process of the efb carried out at 280°c under vacuum. two concentrations of h 2so4 (0.2 m and 0.6 m) were used for the pre-treatment of the carbon pyro-polymers. the untreated carbon pyro-polymer was used as a standard. the treated and untreated carbon pyro-polymers were analysed for the elemental content (chno),thermal behaviour (tga) and the particle size. the green pellets were produced from the treated carbon pyro-polymers and were carbonised at three carbonisation temperatures (600°c,700°c and 800°c) under nitrogen. the porosity of the activated carbon granules was studied using brunauer-emmett-teller (bet) analysis and the results were correlated to the interlayer spacing (d002),stack height (l c) and stack diameter (la) of the trubostratic crystallites in the carbon crystallite estimated from the xrd analysis. data showed that: (a) the d002 of the carbons decreased with increasing carbonisation temperatures,and (b) the d002 of carbon prepared from 0.2 m h2so4 show a decrease as compared to untreated carbon,but an increase was observed for the carbon prepared from 0.6 m h 2so4 treatment. the la shows an increase for the effect of increase in h2so4 treatment and an increase with increase in the carbonisation temperatures. these findings indicated significant effect of h2so4 and carbonisation temperatures toward the porosity and micro-structure of the activated carbon granules.