Physical Property with the Manufacturing Conditions of Activated Carbon for Mercury Adsorption

There is an adsorption method using activated carbon as a typical method for removing elemental mercury. Physical characteristics of activated carbon such as specific surface area and volume of pore (micro and meso) have positive effect for mercury adsorption. Activated carbon is carbon-based material with a high specific surface area. This activated carbon can be manufactured through carbonization and activation process. In this process, physical characteristics of specific surface area and pore distribution are changed by controlling operating parameters like temperature, time and reagent of activation. In this study, we evaluated characteristics of activated carbons manufactured from pinewood and coal with the operating parameters. We evaluated mercury adsorption capacities of the activated carbons having excellent physical characteristics and compared those to the commercial activated carbon.