article · Fuel
Agricultural waste from argan press cake has been converted into activated carbon materials for carbon dioxide capture. The production process involved carbonising the raw material followed by chemical activation using potassium hydroxide at a one to one weight ratio. Activation temperatures between 700 and 850 degrees Celsius produced porous carbons with surface areas reaching up to 1756 square metres per gram. Structural and chemical assessments showed that the materials possess an amorphous structure along with oxygen-containing surface groups and narrow micropores that aid gas capture. The highest carbon dioxide adsorption capacity occurred in material activated at 800 degrees Celsius, reaching 4.58 millimoles per gram at 0 degrees Celsius and 2.63 millimoles per gram at 25 degrees Celsius under one bar of pressure. The resulting carbons maintained performance across ten consecutive reuse cycles.
Finding cost-effective and circular uses for agricultural residues can lower the expense of environmental technologies. Converting argan processing waste into high-capacity adsorbents offers a dual benefit: managing an agricultural byproduct while producing stable materials that can capture carbon dioxide emissions across repeated operating cycles.
This work is relevant to developers of industrial carbon capture systems and processors seeking valorisation pathways for argan press cake waste. Demonstrating sustained capacity across ten cycles places the material at an applied, laboratory-tested stage. Moving toward commercialisation would require pilot-scale validation of the activation process, cost comparisons against existing commercial sorbents, and testing under realistic flue gas conditions.
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• Novel activated carbons were synthesized from Argan paste cake waste via KOH chemical activation. • ACs prepared by chemical activation exhibited high specific surface area. • APC-300-800 shows high CO 2 capture capacity of 4.58 mmol/g and 2.63 mmol/g at 0 and 25 °C, respectively. • Reuse of the ACs over 10 cycles proves practical applicability. Activated carbon (AC) materials were synthesized from argan press cake (APC), leveraging its unique structure and composition, which makes it an ideal precursor for activated carbon production. The synthesis involved initial carbonization of raw APC, followed by activation with potassium hydroxide (KOH) using a 1:1 KOH weight ratio. This study systematically examined the influence of activation temperature on the properties of the resulting activated carbons crucial for their carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) adsorption performance at 0 and 25 °C. Comprehensive characterization of the ACs was performed using gas adsorption, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). XRD analysis revealed the amorphous nature of the activated carbons, while FTIR provided insights into the surface functional groups, confirming the presence of oxygen-containing functionalities essential for CO 2 adsorption. The results underscored the significant impact of microporous structure on CO 2 adsorption performance, with activation temperatures ranging from 700 to 850 °C yielding ACs with BET surface areas between 1200 and 1750 m 2 /g for the 1:1 KOH weight ratio. CO 2 adsorption modeling was performed to predict adsorption behavior under various conditions. The optimal CO 2 adsorption capacity was achieved at 800 °C, with 4.58 mmol/g at 0 °C and 2.63 mmol/g at 25 °C up to 1 bar pressure. Specifically, APC-300-800 KOH exhibited a promising surface area of 1756 m 2 /g, a total micropore volume of 0.76 cm 3 /g, and a narrow micropore volume of 0.30 cm 3 /g. The experimental isotherm data of activated carbon were analysed using Langmuir, Freundlich, Sips, Toth and Redlich–Peterson isotherm equations. The fitting details showed that the multitemperature Sips equation is a powerful tool to mathematically represent CO 2 isotherms on activated carbon produced from argan press cake. These findings highlight the importance of optimizing activation conditions to tailor the material’s textural properties for enhanced carbon adsorption applications.
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DOI: 10.1016/j.fuel.2025.134922
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