Oxide Activated Carbon for Seawater Desalination Using Solar Energy

Abstract

Desalination of seawater is the efficient process and a viable solution for water shortage problem. One of the latest possible solution with less energy consumption is the use of activated carbon for the desalination process. In this work activated carbon was produced from palm trees trunk. The preparation of the activated carbon was done by two steps process. The first step was the pyrolysis for two hours at 700 °C under nitrogen gas flow of 150 ml/min. The next step was the physiochemical activation using potassium hydroxide (1:1) under nitrogen and carbon dioxide gas flow of 150 m/min for two hours. The prepared activated carbon was analyzed using SEM, EXD and XRD to study the surface area, the porosity and the chemical composition. The application of the activated carbon in the desalination process was done by initially oxidizing the AC to use it for the reduction of the boiling point of the seawater followed by the desalination. This was supported with the use of a solar panel to provide the required energy for evaporation. The prepared activated carbon in this study was used to produce fresh water by the desalination of seawater based on environmentally safe and lower energy cost method, which is a promising technique that can overcome the shortcomings of the current used technologies.