A Novel Furfural Residue Activated Carbon Powder for the Removal of Flue Gas Hg⁰

Activated carbon is widely used in industrial flue gas purification treatment. In the current work, a new activated carbon was prepared from furfural residue, and was modified with a mixture of steam activation and maceration of KCl solution for the adsorption of flue gas Hg0. Experimental results showed that the furfural residue activated carbon exhibited excellent adsorption properties for Hg0. The combined modification treatment improved the specific surface area and microstructure of activated carbon and increased the content of C–Cl functional groups on its surface, which improved its sorption effect of Hg0. Furthermore, Hg0 adsorption of furfural residue activated carbon can be depicted by the pseudo-first-order model, where external mass transfer dominates the phenomenon of adsorption. The Hg0 adsorption of activated carbon modified by KCl solution can be depicted by the pseudo-second-order model. Chemical adsorption between the chemisorption sites on the activated carbon surface and Hg0 dominates the adsorption process.