Activated carbon as a catalyst support for transesterification of waste cooking oil

Activated carbon has been widely used as adsorbent and catalyst support. Recently Hameed et al., (2009) published very interested article on the application of activated carbon as support for the transesterification of waste cooking palm oil. You can read the abstract of the article in this link.

Reference:

B. H. Hameed, C.S. Goh, L.H. Chin, Process optimization for methyl ester production from waste cooking oil using activated carbon supported potassium floride, Fuel Processing Technology, 90 (2009) 1532-1537).

Classification of Activated Carbons

Activated carbons can be classified accordings to:

(1) Its raw materials such as coal, coconut shell, oil palm fibre, oil palm shell, sawdust, wood etc.

Example:

Raw material/ Activated carbon
-------------- ------------------
Coconut shell/ Coconut shell activated carbon
Sawdust/ Sawdust activated carbon

(2) Its final shapes such as powder activated carbon, granualar activated carbon, pellets, bounded and shapes activated carbons, activated carbon fibre and woven cloth activated carbon.

(3) Pore size distribution:

The pores are classified by their sizes into three main groups:

(i) Micropores: The average pore diameter is less than 2 nm.

(ii) Mesopores: The average pore diameter is between 2-50 nm.

(iii) Macropores: The average pore diameter is more than 50 nm.

For example if the average pore diameter of an activated carbon is 2.28 nm, its called mesporous activated carbon.

Welcome to the Activated Carbon blog!

Welcome to the Activated Carbon blog!

Activated carbon is widely used in gas purification, solvent recovery, wastewater treatment, etc. It is one of the best tools which can be used to reduce risks to human health and provide an aesthetically pleasing product at reasonable cost. The high adsorption capacity of activated carbon over a wide range of substances, joined with its low production cost, justifies its use in the removal of different pollutants of both gas and liquid medium. This blog is intended to explain what activated carbon is, how it made, how activated carbon works, how adsorption by activated carbon systems works, how activated carbon is regenerated and more....