Green power from shells: Transforming lignocellulosic waste from western Algeria into high performance activated carbon

The rapid increase of the textile industry has emerged as one of the major environmental threats due to the water pollution caused by wastewater discharged from this industry. As a result, the issue needs to be addressed. The present study aims to valorize a lignocellulosic waste - almond shells and transform it to evaluate their performance as activated carbons produced by physicochemical activation influenced by both the impregnation ratio of potassium hydroxide and the activation temperature. These activated carbons were investigated for the removal of MB dye from the waste water in a batch adsorption study. The characterization of the best synthetized activated carbon was carried out through LD, FTIR, WDXRF, TGA, SEM-EDX, XRD analyses, proximate analyses, iodine number, methylene blue number, and pHpzc, illustrating that this stable carbonaceous material (97.93 wt.%) has an amorphous structure, low moisture content and high specific surface area. Optimum adsorption conditions showed that the maximum removal rate exceeded 99.97% and was exhibited at adsorbent dose 50 mg, pH of solution, contact time: 10 minutes, and an initial concentration 50 mg•L−1. Furthermore, the obtained outcomes proves the stability and the high potential power of this activated carbon for the remediation of dyes wastewaters.