Design of a novel Gas Fired Static Bed Pyrolysis–Gasification Reactor for the production of activated carbons

Biomass such as corn cobs, coconut shells and palm kernel shells, which can be used for activated carbon production are abundant in Ghana but are not used for that purpose largely due to absence of locally designed pyrolysis–activation reactors. This paper presents the features of a novel Gas Fired Static Bed Pyrolysis–Activation Reactor, designed and fabricated in Ghana and the characteristics of activated carbons produced from the reactor. The reactor is made up of a stainless steel chamber of a rectangular cross-section, having a square groove positioned symmetrically at the bottom part of the reactor, which allows efficient heat transfer into the bed of material being treated. The design allows easy feeding of precursors as well as easy discharging of carbonised products and can be scaled up for commercial production of activated carbons. Activated carbons were produced using the reactor by carbonisation at 900 °C pyrolysis temperature, followed by steam activation of the derived chars also at 900 °C for various durations at steam addition rate of 0.2 mol/h/g char. The derived activated carbons were found to possess surface areas, pore volumes and gold adsorption characteristics comparable to that of some commercial activated carbons.