Abstract:
Cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) is one of the widely cultivated crops in the world. Cocoa
fruit consist of cocoa pod (70%), cocoa bean (27-29%), and placenta (1-3%). cocoa bean is the
major raw material in the production of chocolates, ice-cream, soft drinks, confectionaries,
cosmetics, health drinks, and pharmaceutical. But cocoa pod being the major by-product is
wasted causing extensive pollution to environment. Cocoa pod can be converted to activated
charcoal that has wide range of application in various industries.in this study activated charcoal
was prepared from cocoa pod.
The production of AC was done in two stages. First carbonization of cocoa pod by
pyrolysis to produce charcoal, then activation of produced charcoal using chemicals to increase
its porosity. The process parameters were pyrolysis temperature (250⁰C, 300⁰C, 350⁰C, 400⁰C)
chemicals used for activation (HCl & KOH) and normality of chemicals used (3N, 4N, 5N).
The optimized condition was found to be pyrolysis at 300⁰C for 1 hour with HCl as best
activating reagent at a 3N. The activated charcoal obtained using optimised parameters are
further characterised by factors such as moisture content, ash content, fixed carbon content,
volatile matter content, pH, bounded carbon content and SEM analysis. Finally the produced
activated carbon was tested in water and oil to study its effects.
