Date pits as potential raw material for the production of activated carbons

The yearly production of dates in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is more than 800,000 tonnes of which a significant proportion is de-stoned prior to sale. In this work, date pits from KSA were used for the preparation of activated carbon with the aim of producing high porous carbons, which would result in a substantial decrease in activated carbon import related costs. The preparation conditions were varied to study their effects on the surface area and porosity. Variables studied included time of carbonization, time of activation, activating agent, impregnation ratio, sample pre-drying, and the effect of the activation process itself. Nitrogen adsorption was used for the determination of apparent surface area and pore size distribution. Results showed that active carbon is of high surface area and micropore volume is over 80% of the total pore volume. The characteristics of the produced activated carbon with the yield of 24% were bulk density of 0.59 g/cm³, 0.5% ash, iodine number of 1100 mg/g and 1319 m²/g of BET surface area.