Utilization of Waste Plastic- Wrappers for the Production of Potential Activated Carbon

Abstract

Although recycling of waste plastic is one of the controlling measures of plasticwastes, some plastics like wrappers of food items cannot be recycled. These wastes finally lead to accumulation in landfills causing environmental problems. So alternate way to reduce this environmental pollution is converting them to some value added material such as activated carbon which not only reduces waste generation but is also worth economical. Among various technologies, adsorptive removal of these toxins by the usage of activated carbon as the adsorbent is more promising and economical, as it is known for its high adsorption capacity. The preparation of activated carbon from waste food packaging polymers which amount about 35% of the total plastic wastes accumulated would not only reduce the large quantities of plastics but also help in water treatment. A relatively new technique, Hydrothermal Carbonization (HTC) was used for the carbonization of the raw material in addition to the traditional carbonization process. Initially the waste plastic wrapper was cut in small pieces and processed to produce char which was further processed to prepare activated carbon. The samples were characterized before and after the process. The obtained char is activated with 1N KOH solution at optimized activation time of 23hrs and impregnation ratio (KOH : char) of 6:1. The obtained activated carbon is named as dry pyrolysed activated carbon (DPAC) and it was characterized by several means such as EDX, XRD, FTIR, Iodine value, Methylene blue adsorption and FESEM analysis which confirmed the production of activated carbon from plastics.