Preparation of activated carbon from sawdust by chemical activation with zinc chloride

Activated carbons were prepared from sawdust by chemical activation with zinc chloride under different operation conditions.The effects of operation parameters such as impregnation ratio,activation temperature and time on the adsorption properties of activated carbons were measured and analyzed in order to optimize these operation conditions.The experimental results show that both the yield and the adsorption for iodine,methylene blue and phenol of activated carbon can reach a relatively higher value in the chemical activation process under the experimental conditions that the carbon is activated for 60~90 minutes.with the impregnation ratio of 100% at the activation temperature of 500℃ which are the optimum activation conditions in making wood activated carbon.The most important operation parameter in chemical activation with zinc chloride is the impregnation ratio.