The Comparison of activated carbon characterization produced from Iranian coals in rotary kiln reactor

Coal as an important carbonaceous material is widely used to produce activated carbon. Around %60 of activated carbon products are coal based in the world. The properties of activated carbon product are mainly depended on the coal mine region. In this work activated carbon production from some operating coal mines in Iran was studied. Eleven mines among more than thirty mines were selected for producing activated carbon. The criteria for selecting the mines were some proper characteristic of the coal such as low ash and sulfur content and low plasticity. After pretreatment of the coal samples, the steam activation of each sample is studied in different temperature and resident time. The results showed that the activation behavior of the coal samples were different compare to each other. The results show activated carbons with surface area of 400 m2/gr up to 1300 m2/gr can be produced from different coals in different activation conditions. This different behavior can be related to different maceral composition of the coal samples.