Preparation of Activated Carbon from Wastepaper and Adsorption of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals

Activated carbon is proposed as a new application of wastepaper recycling other than the paper-making. Waste kraft bag is considered to be a suitable raw material for activated carbon because of its low ash content. Small pellets of wastepaper squeezed out from the continuous kneader were carbonized in a nitrogen atmosphere and activated using carbon dioxide. The BET specific surface areas of activated carbon prepared from waste kraft bag was $1,285m^{2}/g$, which is higher than commercially available activated carbons. The activated carbon prepared from wastepaper has a well-developed porous structure, particularly in mesopore and macropore ranges. As a result, activated carbon with iodine adsorption capacity of 1,400 mg/g was obtained from waste kraft bag. In this paper, adsorption amount of Bisphenol A (BPA) was determined to investigate adsorbability of activated carbon from waste kraft bag. Adsorption measurements were on solutions ranging from $0.1{mu}g/L\;to\;100mg/L$. The activated carbon from waste kraft bag gave higher BPA adsorbabilities over a wide range, compared with commercially available activated carbons.