Recirculating coking by-products and waste for cost-effective activated carbon (AC) production and its application for treatment of SO2 and wastewater in coke-making plant

Utilization of coke-making by-products/wastes and purification of waste gas and wastewater are critical issues for the coke-making industry. Activated carbon (AC) is effective in the removal of various pollutants from gas to aqueous solutions. This paper proposes a feasible and cost-effective approach to produce AC by recirculating coking by-products and waste for pollutants removal in coke-making plant. The results show that AC’s physiochemical structure and its performance could be regulated by altering the coke powder (C) and benzene residue (B)’ addition. Simultaneously addition of C and B slightly promotes AC’s graphitization and has no obvious effect on surface functional groups, and the mechanism was proposed. The sulfur capacity declined obviously with the addition of C and slightly increased with B’s addition, which indicates that about 20% by-products and waste’s addition could achieve similar performance of unmodified AC (51.2 mg/g). As-prepared AC with C and B’s addition could retain coking wastewater’s color and COD removal ability. The engineering practice and implications elucidate the advances and challenges associated with attaining practical, economical, eco-friendly AC production and environmental protection. The objective of this investigation is to explore a scientific basis for better coking by-products and waste utilization and provide an economic sustainability approach through achieves carbon cycle in coking plant for pollutant treatment.