Steam activation of Eupatorium adenophorum for the production of porous carbon and hydrogen rich fuel gas

•Eupatorium adenophorum, a global exotic weed is reutilization.•The model evidences good agreement between experimental data and the prediction.•The AC has well developed pore structure and favorable functional groups.•Fuel gas generated during the activation process with a HV of 10.27 MJ/m3.

Eupatorium adenophorum was converted into a high-quality activated carbon (EAAC) and hydrogen rich fuel gas via steam activation. The process variables including activation temperature, activation duration and steam flow rate on the adsorption capability and activated carbon yield were identified. Additionally the surface characteristics of EAAC were characterized by nitrogen adsorption isotherms, FTIR and SEM. The operating variables were optimized utilizing the response surface methodology and were identified to be an activation temperature of 950 °C, an activation duration of 60 min and a steam flow rate of 1.2 ml/min with a iodine adsorption capacity of 1031 mg/g and yield of 25%. The key parameters that characterize quality of the porous carbon such as the BET surface area, total pore volume and average pore diameter were estimated to be 1357 m2/g, 1.1 ml/g and 3.31 nm, respectively. The heating value of fuel gases evolved during the process of activation at optimized process conditions were estimated to be 10.27 MJ/m3, with the major components being H2 and CO. A high heating value well augurs its utility as a heat source for the whole process which would significantly alter the commercial manufacturing economy.