Produção de carvão ativado de bagaço de cana para utilização na remoção de cobre em cachaça.

Abstract

Cachaça can be obtained artisanally by distillation in copper stills. There is great possibility of contamination of the distillate by this metal, which if consumed in excess can cause adverse health conditions..The aim of this work was to produce activated carbon from the sugarcane bagasse, to be used as adsorbent material in the removal of copper ions in cachaça. Two carbon samples were produced, one physically activated with water vapor and the other chemically activated with phosphoric acid. The surface areas and pore size of the samples were calculated by the BET method using a microporosimeter. Physically and chemically activated samples presented surface areas of 313 m2 / g and 520 m2 / g respectively. The physically activated carbon had pore size equal to 19 Å, which makes it predominantly microporous. The chemically activated carbon had a pore size equal to 21 Å, which makes it predominantly mesoporous. The adsorption isotherms are of type IV for the two samples, which allows to conclude the existence of both mesopores and macropores.