Abstract
In this study, parts of date palm tree wastes; foliar (RDFo), frond (RDFr) and thorn (RDTh) was selected as the precursor for production of activated carbon. One-step pyrolysis was introduced to investigate the potentiality of date's waste for this manner. The tree waste was scrutinized and chemical characterized in term of proximate analysis, thermal behavior, chemical composition, surface area and surface morphology. The TGA results indicated that the maximum temperature use for the pyrolysis should be kept below 400 degrees C, since above this temperature the tendency of loss carbon is expected. By proximate analysis, RDFr was chosen as the best raw material, for mass production with high carbon content of 85.3% compared to 81.9% and 76.6%, of RDFo and RDTh respectively. Moreover, the surface morphology of RDFr also shows high potential with its natural pore structure on its surface as seen in FESEM pictograph. This is supported by the surface area analysis of RDFr before and after pyrolysis of 8.0 m(2) g(-1) and 21.5 m(2) g(-1) respectively. FTIR analysis on the other hand indicated that after pyrolysis there still present of incomplete conversion of plant materials to pure activated carbon. Finally this study shows that one-step air pyrolysis is the most simplest method to investigate mass production of activated carbon from waste agricultural activity.