Abstract:
Sri Lanka is the third largest cinnamon exporter in the world. But Sri Lankan cinnamon industry
only consumes cinnamon bark as the product and the leftover cinnamon stem is used as biomass
for energy generation by burning. In this study, value addition for remaining cinnamon wood is
carried out by converting cinnamon wood into activated carbon granules. Activated carbon
granules are widely used in many industries as filter materials and, one of the example is
purifying contaminated (by chemicals and heavy metals) water. According to the literature
review, It is rare to find the study about the preparation of activated carbon granules from
cinnamon wood. The chemical activation process was used with two-step pyrolyzing under an
oxygen-deficient environment at 700°C and 800°C respectively. For that, a stainless furnace
was designed and fabricated to produce biochar from cinnamon wood. Biochar granules in a
range of 0.6 -1.18 mm were sieved for the preparation of activated carbon. Biochar yield from
the cinnamon wood is calculated and the microscopic structure of biochar particles was
examined. The chemical activation process was conducted at 700°C and 800°C using NaOH
and KOH as activation agents under impregnation ratios of 1:1 and 1:3. Surface morphology of
the biochar and activated carbon granules prepared under different conditions was observed
using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) to examine the developed pore structure. SEM
images represented a considerable difference between pore structures after chemical activation.
