How to Make Activated Carbon from Coconut Shell

How to make activated carbon from coconut shell - When talking about coconuts, then we get very many benefits, especially the consumption of meat and coconut water for human life, such as coconut milk, is an ingredient obtained from the results of the old coconut meat juice.

But the huge consumption of coconuts also adds a new problem, namely waste generated from coconut processing, one of which is coconut shell.

Coconut shell if not processed further will not have a sale value, one of the uses that have been made to change the coconut shell waste is to make it into handicrafts or make them into charcoal.

Coconut shell charcoal so far in my area is only used as fuel in food processing, such as baking sate (Indonesia), burning fish or chicken, and to smoke fish.

But if we want to increase the economic value of charcoal, we can make coconut shell charcoal into briquettes or activated carbon charcoal.

How to make activated carbon from coconut shells

How to make activated carbon from coconut shells is relatively easy, activated carbon from charcoal serves as a filter for water purification, gas purification, beverage industry, pharmaceuticals, catalysts, etc.

Coconut shell has a superior quality to be used as activated carbon, but we must also pay attention to the shape and size, and type of coconut shell used.

A good coconut shell shape that is used is half or as much as a circle, if the size is too small, then the quality of activated carbon will decrease, and in terms of quality, the old coconut shell is the best, which means we can use shells from the copra processing industry.

The coconut which is chosen in the copra industry to have good quality must use old coconut, and the type of tall coconut in the most demanded in making copra, tall coconut has a large and thick shell.

Important note if you want to make activated carbon from coconut shells, make sure that the shell is completely clean from coconut fiber.

In making activated carbon with coconut shells, there are two stages :
 1. Tools used in the process of burning coconut shells into charcoal must have a lid
 2. The process of grinding charcoal to produce charcoal powder can be done with a simple machine.

Where I live, the tool used to make coconut shell charcoal is to use a drum.

The following stages of the process of burning coconut shell charcoal :

 1. At the bottom of the drum is given four holes to supply air, then propped up with 3 pieces of bricks so that the drum does not stick to the ground.

2. The charcoal combustion process is done in layers, the first layer is a stack of coconut shells with a size of 1/4 drum height, then the fire is ignited, after the first layer burns completely, then put the shell again on the second layer, repeat this process until the drum is full.

3. When the topmost layer of the shell has burned, take the brick block under the drum so that the bottom of the drum sticks to the ground and will stop supplying air to the drum hole.

4. Make sure the topmost shell layer has burned, and when the fire is still burning, then the drum is closed, the closing process of this drum will stop the supply of air and will make the fire in the drum will die by itself, because if it's not closed, then the burning shell will become ash.

If the first stage of burning charcoal is successful, a black, whole, hard, and easily broken charcoal will be obtained, this is a characteristic of good quality charcoal.

Composition of activated carbon charcoal

Charcoal is a porous solid containing 85-95% carbon, produced from materials containing carbon by heating at high temperatures.

When heating takes place, efforts are made to avoid air leakage in the heating chamber so that the carbon-containing material is only carbonized and not oxidized. Besides being used as fuel, it can also be used as an adsorbent.

Absorption is determined by the surface area of ​​the particles and this ability can be higher if the charcoal is activated with chemicals or by heating at high temperatures. Thus, charcoal will experience changes in physical and chemical properties. Such charcoal is referred to as activated charcoal.

Activated carbon or charcoal is material in the form of granules or powder derived from carbon-containing materials such as coal, coconut shells, and so on.

With certain processing, namely activation processes such as treatment with high pressure and temperature, activated carbon can be obtained which has a large inner surface.

Activated carbon is very active and will absorb anything that comes in contact with the carbon.

Within 60 hours the activated carbon usually becomes saturated and no longer active. Therefore, activated charcoal is usually packaged in airtight packages.

To some extent, some types of activated charcoal can be reactivated again, although many suggest that activated carbon is used for single use.

Processing stages coconut shell carcoal

In many tropical countries which are ideal places for coconut growth, coconut shell charcoal proccesing is still found traditionally, using drums or holes in the ground, with the following processing stages :
 1. The shell to be burned is put in a hole or drum made of iron plates.
 2. Then the fire is ignited so that the shell burns, when burning, the drum or hole is closed so that only the ventilation is left open. This aims as a way out of smoke.
 3. When the smoke is bluish, ventilation is closed and left for approximately 8 hours or one night.
 4. Carefully open the hole or lid and check if there is any burning coals. If there is still a drum or closed again. It is not justified to use water to turn off burning coals, because it can reduce the quality of charcoal.

But in general the process of making activated charcoal can be divided into two, namely:

1. Chemical Process.
Charcoal is mixed with certain chemicals, then made solid. Then the solid is formed into bars and dried and cut into pieces. Activation is carried out at a temperature of 100 °C. The activated charcoal is produced, then washed with water and then dried at a temperature of 300 °C. With chemical processes, raw materials can be carbonized first, then mixed with chemicals.

2. Physics Process
The raw material is charcoal made first. Furthermore, the charcoal is ground, sifted and then activated by heating at a temperature of 1000 ° C accompanied by vapor flow.

Activation process charcoal 

The activation process is an important matter in addition to the raw materials used. What is mean by activation is a treatment of charcoal that aims to enlarge the pore by breaking the hydrocarbon bonds or oxidizing surface molecules so that the charcoal undergoes changes in both physical and chemical characteristics, i.e the surface area increases and affects the adsorption power. Activation methods commonly used in making activated charcoal are:

1. Chemical Activation.
This activation is the process of breaking the carbon chains of organic compounds by the use of chemicals. Activators used are chemicals such as: alkali metal hydroxides, carbonate salts, chlorides, sulfates, phosphates from soil alkaline metals and specifically ZnCl2, inorganic acids such as H2SO4 and H3PO4.

2. Physics Activation.
This activation is the process of breaking the carbon chains of organic compounds with the help of heat, steam and CO2. Generally the charcoal is heated in a furnace at a temperature of 800-900 ° C. Oxidation with air at low temperatures is an exothermic reaction so it is difficult to control it. While heating with steam or CO2 at high temperatures is an endothermic reaction, making it easier to control and most commonly used.

Some raw materials are easier to activate if they are chlorinated first. Furthermore, it is carbonized to remove chlorinated hydrocarbons and finally is activated by steam.

In some material goods which are activated by mixing chemicals, a second activation is given with steam to give certain physical properties.

With the duration of distillation and the increasing distillation temperature, resulting in the smaller amount of charcoal produced, while the greater the distillation and absorption capacity.

Even though the distillation temperature increases, the absorption of activated charcoal is getting better, it still needs a temperature restriction that does not exceed 1000 C, because there is a lot of ash formed so that it covers the pores that function to adsorb.

As a result the absorption of activated charcoal will decrease. Then the mixture of charcoal and activator is heated at a certain temperature and time. The results obtained were tested for absorption of Iodine solution.

The most important characteristic of activated charcoal is absorption. Activated carbon is a multifunctional material in which most of it has been used by various types of industries.