Preparation and characterisation of demineralised tyre derived activated carbon

The effect of demineralisation and activation conditions on the physical and chemical properties of activated carbon adsorbents produced from waste tyre char has been investigated. Experimental data showed that hydrochloric acid treatment prior to the activation is able to remove certain mineral contents such as zinc, calcium, sodium and others from the tyre char. The removal of some of the components which have catalytic effect on the activation increase the yield of the activated carbon and at the same time lower the ash content of the tyre activated carbon. The tyre demineralised activated carbons are generally mesoporous with a surface area up to 960 m²/g and therefore are comparable to commercial products. The adsorption of phenol onto the tyre activated carbon was also tested and the Redlich–Peterson equilibrium isotherm model gave the best-fit to experimental data for the phenol using the non-linear error functions.