Activated Carbon

Abstract: Activated Carbon is one of the foremost adsorbents. It is much sought after in almost all fields of pollution control and mitigation, owing to its highly efficient nature in adsorbing a wide range of solid, liquid and gaseous pollutants. Most commercially activated carbon is prepared from coconut shells. Since coconut shells have a variety of other uses, the perceived economic value of this raw material has seen a steady increase in the past few years. This naturally adds up to the cost of the carbon prepared from the shells, even though coconut shell activated carbon is still considered among the superior carbons. Therefore a lot of research has gone into making activated carbon out of food and agricultural wastes that as yet don’t have much perceived economic value. This paper takes a brief look at the physical and chemical activation methods used for preparing activated carbon from Cashew Nut Shells, and its efficiency in the removal of Methylene Blue (MB) dye from aqueous solutions