Assessment of Different Binders for Activated Carbon Granulation for the Use in CO₂ Adsorption

An eco-friendly method for the synthesis of granular activated carbon was developed in this study. Two types of activated carbon and three types of activated carbon granules have been obtained using different binders, and their properties have been determined. The approach requires adding other binders and waste materials to improve the granulation of activated carbon. Activated carbon was prepared from birch wood chips. Prepared carbon was granulated with a) gas generator tar, b) phenol-formaldehyde resin, and c) polyvinyl acetate to obtain granular activated carbon. This work aims to study the possibilities of using activated carbon adsorbents for CO₂ adsorption. The activated carbon produced was characterized by BET, FTIR, and SEM. The adsorption behavior on CO₂ was also studied. Granular activated carbons compression strength was enough to study it in an adsorption bed, and an optimal binder was to be phenol-formaldehyde resin and polyvinyl acetate. The obtained results show that activated carbon granules are suitable for CO₂ adsorption and can be used, for example, for the removal of CO₂ in the biogas upgrading process. As the sustainability problems are increasing, granules from waste materials could be promising materials for further studies.