OGE AMAUCHE OGE

This research project looks into the viability of using agricultural waste (coconut shells) as a source of biochar, a porous carbon material with excellent CO2 adsorption capabilities, for carbon capture. This will involve preparing biochar from coconut shells, characterizing the prepared biochar sample, and using this biochar sample to adsorb CO2, in a bid to demonstrate the possibility of using agricultural waste for carbon capture. The biochar was prepared by carbonizing coconut shells. The residue obtained was activated in batches using NaOH and Phosphoric acid to obtain biochar samples with slightly different properties. A 1:1 coconut shell and palm kernel shell blend was prepared to test the effect of blending. Preliminary characterization was carried out to select the biochar sample with the highest adsorption potential for further characterization. An iodine number test was carried out to determine the adsorption capacity of the biochar samples, indicating their level of activation. The CO2 capture test involves measuring the amount of CO2 adsorbed by the biochar sample in a fixed-packed bed adsorption column to determine the adsorption capacity. This was achieved by measuring CO2 concentrations at the bottom and top of the column to determine the amount of CO2 adsorbed by the biochar adsorbent. The analysis of the final biochar sample (sample 3) showed promising characteristics, making it suitable as an adsorbent material with a micropore surface area of 719.886 m2 /g and a micropore volume of 0.256 cc/g. These values are within typical ranges found in commercial adsorbents. For the first run of CO2 adsorption experiment using 30g of biochar an adsorption capacity of 16.28 mg CO2/g of biochar was obtained. Subsequent runs with smaller amounts of biochar resulted in decreasing adsorption capacities, demonstrating that using greater amounts of biochar increases the performance. These results are consistent with previous research on CO2 capture. Overall, the biochar sample derived from coconut shells showed sufficient adsorption capacity for use in CO2 capture systems, despite the simple production process without sophisticated equipment. The research findings suggest that coconut shell-derived biochar shows promise for carbon capture applications.