Date of Award

2-1-1970

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Chemical Engineering

Abstract

Activated carbon was produced by reacting lignite char with steam in a fluidized-bed reactor which was designed and constructed for this study. Effects of three variables temperature, residence time and particle size, at four levels were studied statistically using a Latin square design. When the analysis of variance indicated that only two of the variables, temperature and residence time, were significant, a two-way classification design was used to investigate optimum activation conditions.

Activated carbon with adsorptive powers which were equal to or superior to Darco active carbon, as shown by the iodine test and the color adsorption test, were produced in this study. The best active carbons had an iodine adsorption of .725 grams per gram of carbon while Darco was only .55 grams of iodine per gram of carbon. Darco removed only 4 percent of the color from a stock solution of malachite green indicator while many of the products of this investigation removed 75 to 85 percent.

The analysis of variance of the results of the two designs used indicate that the effects of residence time between 6 minutes to 24 minutes is greater than that of temperature from 1450° F to 1750° F.

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