DEVELOPMENT OF ACTIVATED CARBONS FROM COAL COMBUSTION BY-PRODUCTS

The increasing role of coal as a source of energy in the 21st century will demand environmental and cost-effective strategies for the use of coal combustion by-products (CCBPs), mainly unburned carbon in fly ash. Unburned carbon is nowadays regarded as a waste product and its fate is mainly disposal, due to the present lack of efficient routes for its utilization. However, unburned carbon is a potential precursor for the production of adsorbent carbons, since it has gone through a devolatilization process while in the combustor, and therefore, only requires to be activated. Accordingly, this report evaluates and compares several routes for the production of activated carbons from unburned carbon in fly ash, including physical and chemical activation methods. During the present reporting period (June 30, 2001-June 29, 2002), additional characterization work was conducted under Task 1 ''Procurement and characterization of CCBPs''. The suite collected includes samples from pulverized utility boilers, a utility cyclone unit equipped with a beneficiation technology, a stoker, and a fluidized bed combustor. Proximate, ultimate, and petrographic analyses of the fly ash samples previously collected were measured. Furthermore, the surface areas of the samples assembled were characterized by N{sub 2} adsorption isotherms at 77 K. The proximate analyses showed that all the samples had very low moisture contents (0.17 to 3.39 wt%), while volatile matter contents of the samples varied between 0.45 to 24.8 wt%. The ultimate analyses of all the fly ash samples showed that they contained primarily carbon, while the hydrogen contents of all the samples were very low. In addition, during the current reporting period, also Task 2 ''Development of activated carbons'' and Task 3 ''Characterization of activated carbons'' were continued