Corner Brook Pulp and Paper Mill Waste Management: Final Report

The fly ash generated from Corner Brook Pulp and Paper Limited was transformed to activated carbon through physical activation process in a high temperature tube furnace in this study. Effects of two factors including activation temperature and activation time were investigated. Iodine number, methylene blue value, surface microstructure, surface area and pore volume were all analyzed to assess the adsorption capacity of different carbon samples. In this study, the sample activated under 850 °C for 2 hours has the highest iodine number (704.53 mg/g) and methylene blue value (193.47 mg/g). Hence, it is selected to conduct further assessment on surface area and pore volume. Comparing the CBPP FA-Clean sample with the CBPP FA- 850 °C-2hr sample, it is investigated that the surface area was significantly increased from 486.44 m2/g to 847.26 m2/g. Meanwhile, the pore volume increased from 0.18 cm3/g to 0.28 cm3/g. The result of scanning electron microscopy also reveals that there are lots of pores developed on the sample surface after activation at 850 °C for 2 hrs.