A novel thermal process for activated carbon production from the vetch biomass with air at low temperature by two-stage procedure

• Activated carbon produced from the vetch with ZnCl2 activation.
• The different low pyrolysis temperatures (30–80 and 240–400 °C) were applied.
• Activation temperature, impregnation ratio and activation time were examined.
• Highest BET surface area and iodine number obtained as 1287 m2/g and 1004 mg/g.

The method differs from a known method for the pyrolysis processing of agriculture waste. In this article, a novel thermal process of producing activated carbon from the vetch at low temperature by air is discussed. This paper reports the preparation of activated carbon with two-stage pyrolysis with air from the vetch by zinc chloride activation. The experiments in this study vary the pre- and post-treatment procedures, the impregnation ratio of the activating agent, and the carbonization temperature. The pyrolysis was carried out at different low activation temperatures in the range of 30–80 and 240–400 °C. Adsorption capacity was demonstrated with BET and iodine number. The respective highest BET surface area and iodine number for the produced activated carbons was obtained as 1287 m2/g and 1004 mg/g. SEM evaluated the structural morphology of activated carbons. The surface chemical characteristics of activated carbons were determined by FTIR spectroscopic method. The use of low temperature chemical carbonization has the potential to further improve the economics of generating activated carbon.