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BioresourceTechnology69 (1999) 45-51

Removal of sugar colorants by granular activated carbons made

from binders and agricultural by-products
B. Pendyal a, M.M. Johns b, W.E. Marshall b, M. Ahmedna a, R.M. Rao a*
aDepartment of Food Science, LAES, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA
bUSDA-ARS-Southern RegionalResearch Center, P.O. Box 19687, New Orleans, LA 70179, USA

Received 15 April 1998; revised 17 September 1998; accepted 25 September 1998

Abstract

Twenty-four granular activated carbons (GACs) made from mixtures of four binders (coal tar, sugarcane molasses, sugar beet
molasses, corn syrup) and three agricultural by-products (rice hulls, rice straw, sugarcane bagasse) were evaluated for their ability
to remove sugar colorants (molasses color removal, sugar decolorization). These properties were compared to the same
properties of two commercial reference carbons. GACs made from sugarcane bagasse, in general, possessed the best ability to
remove sugar colorants and were closest to the reference carbons in this regard. In fact, the four highest ranked GACs all used
bagasse as a feedstock along with four different binders. Therefore, the ability to remove sugar colorants appears to be
by-product dependent with the binder playing a minor role. 1999 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Activated carbon; Binders; Agricultural by-products; Sugar decolorization

1. Introduction

G A C s used in water and wastewater treatment in the

United States are largely derived from coal. The versatility of coal-based carbons can be seen in their ability
to remove toxic organic compounds from industrial and
municipal wastewater and potable water as well. They
also exhibit limited potential for metals remediation of
contaminated water sources. Another significant use
for coal-based carbons is raw sugar refining where they
are used in sugar decolorization.
While the versatility of coal-based G A C s is unquestioned, the feedstock for these carbons, usually
bituminous coal, is a non-renewable resource. The
long-term availability of coal and its long-term environmental impact and potentially increased cost has
p r o m p t e d researchers to consider renewable resources
such as agricultural by-products as an alternate
feedstock. Two important commodity crops in the
United States are rice and sugarcane. Their
by-products, namely rice hulls, rice straw and sugarcane bagasse, have been evaluated as activated carbons
in several different applications. A review by Pollard et
*Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-225-388-5189; fax: +1-225-3885300; e-mail: rrao@unixl.sncc.lsu.edu

al. (1992) of rice hull carbon describes its early

(pre-1992) use as a potential low cost adsorbent in
water and wastewater treatment. Since then, occasional
articles have appeared where rice hulls carbons have
been investigated for metals adsorption (Youssef and
Mostafa, 1992, 1994; Teker et al., 1997) and sugar
decolorization (Ahmedna et al., 1997a). There is little
information on the application of rice straw carbons as
adsorbents. Recently, A h m e d n a et al. (1997a) and
Johns et al. (1998) have evaluated rice straw-based
GACs for their ability to decolorize sugar or remove
metals and low molecular weight organic compounds
from solution.
There has been recent interest in using sugarcane
bagasse as activated carbon feedstock. Carbons made
from bagasse and used for sugar decolorization would
be a natural outlet for this sugar processing waste.
Lavarack (1997) and Bernardo et al. (1997) have
described the removal of colorants found in raw sugar
with bagasse based-carbons. Their carbons were the
non-granular type and no attempt to employ a binder
in developing their GACs was reported. Carbonaceous
adsorbents from bagasse have also been used to adsorb
chromium (VI) (Shashikanth and Shantha, 1993) and
2,4-dinitrophenol (Srivastava et al., 1995) from
aqueous solution.

0960-8524/99/$ - - see front matter 1999 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S0960-8524(98)00172-2

46

B. Pendyalet al./Bioresource Technology69 (1999) 45-51

Our objective was to use granular activated carbons

derived from sugarcane or rice by-products and
evaluate their ability to adsorb sugar colorants, which
included removal of molasses color and sugar decolorization. We also wanted to compare these carbons to
two coal-based carbons used commercially in cane
sugar processing.

2. Methods

2.1. Materials
Rice hulls (RH) and rice straw (RS) were procured
from Supreme Rice Mill, Crowley, LA. Sugarcane
bagasse (SB) was obtained from the Audubon Sugar
Institute, Baton Rouge, LA. The binders used in this
study and their sources were: (1) coal tar pitch (CT)
from Koppers Industries, Follarsbee, WV; (2) sugarcane molasses (CM) from Alma Sugar Company,
Baton Rouge, LA; (3) sugar beet molasses (BM) from
American Crystal Sugar Company, Moorhead, MN;
and (4) corn syrup (CS) from A.E. Staley Manufacturing Company, Decatur, IL. The reference carbons
were two bituminous coal-based carbons designated
'CPG LF' and 'Cane Cal' by their manufacturer
(Calgon Carbon, Pittsburgh, PA).
2.2. Preparation of granular activated carbons
Rice hulls, rice straw and sugarcane bagasse were
milled in a hammer-cutter mill (Glen Mills Inc.,
Clifton, NJ) to 5-10 mesh size (US Standard Sieve).
The by-products were mixed with each of four binders
at by-product:binder (w/w) ratios of 1:1 and 1:0.5.
Sugarcane molasses, sugar beet molasses and corn
syrup were heated to 80C, then combined with the
by-products in a laboratory mixer until homogeneous.
The blends were cooled to room temperature and
placed in a stainless steel cylinder of 5.7 cm diameter
and 7.0 cm height. A pressure of 7000 psi was applied
to the cylinder contents by means of a laboratory press
(F.S. Carver Inc., Wabash, IN) for 5 min to form
briquettes. The coal tar pitch was heated to 140C and
one of each of the milled by-products added. The
temperature of the mixing vessel was kept at 140C
during mixing. The hot blend was quickly added to the
cylinder and pressed into briquettes before the coal tar
could solidify. All briquettes were stored at room
temperature and had bulk densities > 1.2 g/cm3.
Briquettes were pyrolyzed in an atmosphere of
nitrogen gas at 700C for 1 h using an inert atmosphere
furnace (Model BAF-8128, Grieve Corp., Round Lake,
IL) with retort. The pyrolyzed samples were cooled
overnight in the furnace in a nitrogen atmosphere. The

briquettes were then crushed and sieved to produce

samples of 12-40 mesh particle size.
The granules were activated in the same furnace
using a gas mixture of 13% CO2 and 87% N 2 at 800C
for 6h. The GACs were cooled overnight in the
furnace under nitrogen gas and washed with 0.1 N HC1
to remove surface ash particles. The samples were
water washed until the slurries reached pH 7.0. The
carbons were then dried at 110C for 4 h.
2.3. Determination of ability to remove sugar colorants
2.3.1. Percent molasses color removed
A modification of the method of Hassler (1963) was
used to determine the percent molasses color removed
(PMCR) by the activated carbons. Ten grams of blackstrap molasses and 15g of disodium phosphate
(NazHPO4) were dissolved in 500 ml of water and sufficient phosphoric acid was added to give a pH of 6.5.
The mixture was diluted to 11 and filtered through a
thin layer of filter aid in a Buchner funnel. The filtrate
was stored at 4C.
Fifty ml of molasses solution was transferred to a
250 ml beaker and 0.5 g of GAC was added and stirred
for 30 s. The contents of the beaker were brought to a
boil with continuous stirring, cooled and filtered
through Whatman No. 5 filter paper by vacuum filtration. A blank with no carbon added was also prepared
in a similar manner. The color of the filtrate was
measured using a Gilford Response-II, UV-Vis
spectrometer (Gilford Systems, Oberlin, OH) with a
10 mm cell. Absorbance was measured at 420 nm at a
band width of 0.2 nm. The PMCR was calculated by
the following equation:
PMCR =

A42oof b l a n k - A420of carbon sample

A42oof blank

x 100

2.3.2. Percent sugar decolorization

Sugar decolorization was carried out using the
Domino Sugar method (Amstar, 1993) as modified by
Ahmedna
et
al.
(1997b).
We
utilized the
3-(N-morpholino)-2-hydroxypropane sulfonic
acid
(MOPSO) buffer as recommended by Ahmedna et al.
(1997b). However, in this study, paper filter pads were
used in place of the Amberlite XAD-7 adsorbent
(Rohm and Haas Co., Philadelphia, PA) originally
described by Ahmedna et al. (1997a).
2.3.3. Determination of pore volumes and surface areas
GAC (100-200mg) was dried under vacuum at
ll0C for 3 h to remove moisture from the carbon
pores. Samples were placed in a Micromeritics Gemini
2375 Surface Area Analyzer (Micromeritics, Inc.,
Norcross, GA) and nitrogen adsorption isotherms were

47

B. Pendyalet al./Bioresource Technology 69 (1999) 45-51

run at 77K. From these isotherms, micro-, meso- and

macropore volumes were calculated using the BJH
model and pore surface areas were calculated using
t-plots (Gregg and Sing, 1982).

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Sugar colorant removal by GACs

The amount of molasses color removed is regarded

as a test that indicates a carbon's capacity to adsorb
colored bodies, especially sugar colorants. Carbons
with high molasses uptake are generally good sugar
decolorizers. Four of 24 experimental carbons removed
molasses color equal to or greater than one or the
other of the reference carbons (Fig. 1). Of those four
GACs, three were bagasse-based and used three
different binders. On average, carbons made from
sugarcane bagasse removed a greater percentage of
molasses color (47.9%) than those made from rice
straw (30.0%) or rice hulls (27.0%). These mean values

were not statistically different from each other at

P < 0 . 0 5 because of the variability in color removal
among the various binders within each agricultural
by-product category.
Reference carbons possessed the highest sugar
decolorizing capacity (Fig. 2). On average, sugarcane
bagasse-based carbons possessed the greatest ability to
remove sugar colorants (42.6%) followed by rice hulls
(30.5%) and rice straw (24.1%). Again, these means
were not statistically different at P < 0 . 0 5 due to the
variability from the different binders within each
by-product category. Of the eight bagasse-based GACs,
five of the eight had the highest decolorizing capacity
among the experimental samples.
3.2. Adsorptive properties related to pore volume and
surface area

According to Dubinin (1987), there are three

important properties of activated carbons that may
contribute to adsorption of sugar colorants exhibited by
carbons seen in Figs 1 and 2. The properties are (1)

70

60
v

"O
>
O

50
40

30
20

10

C1 C2
Commercial Carbons

12345678
Rice Hulls

12345678
Rice Straw

12345678
Sugarcane Bagasse

Fig. 1. Percent molasses color removed from commercialdecolorizingcarbons and experimentalcarbons using different binders and by-products.
Values given are means of duplicate determinations where the standard error did not exceed 5%. The GACs are identified as follows: (C1)
Calgon CPG LF; (C2) Calgon Cane cal; (1) coal tar (1:0.5); (2) coal tar (1:1); (3) sugarcane molasses (1:0.5); (4) sugarcane molasses (1:1); (5)
sugarbeet molasses (1:0.5); (6) sugarbeet molasses (1:1); (7) corn syrup (1:1); (8) corn syrup (1:0.5).

B. Pendyal et al./Bioresource Technology 69 (1999) 45-51

48

distribution of pore volume among micro- (0-20,~ pore

diameter), meso- (20-500,~) and macropores ( > 500A),
(2) distribution of surface area between micropores
and external surface (meso+macro) area and (3)
chemical reactivity of the carbon surface. The first two
of these properties can be addressed in this study.
Carbons with a high pore volume and a combination of
large and small pores have the highest decolorization
potential. The presence of large and small pores
implies a favorable pore volume and surface area
distribution for adsorption of polydisperse colorants.
The system of macropores could serve as avenues for
the rapid diffusion of color bodies to the smaller pores
where they are adsorbed. In most activated carbons,
micropores contribute the highest percentage to both
the total pore volume and total surface area (Stoekli,
1995).
Pore volume and surface area distribution for the
GACs having the highest or lowest molasses color
removal plus sugar decolorization values are shown in
Tables 1 and 2 along with a reference carbon, Cane
Cal. SB/BM/I:I (total score = 113.5) had the greatest
and RS/CT/I:I (total score = 25.5) the poorest ability

to remove sugar colorants among the experimental

samples. The reference carbon had the highest total
score (133). The best decolorizers were characterized
by relatively high total pore volumes and by micro-,
meso- and macropore volumes which comprise about
60-75%, 20-30% and 4-5% of the total volume,
respectively (Table 1). The GAC composed of bagasse
with coal tar binder (SB/CT/I:I) had a low total pore
volume but a pore volume distribution matching the
reference carbon. A good distribution of pore volumes
may partially overcome a deficiency in total pore
volume. Overall, this effect is seen for all the best
by-product-based carbons which had lower total pore
volumes than the reference. However, the importance
of having a large pore volume is seen with the reference carbon which was the best decolorizer. The four
poorest decolorizers were characterized by low total
pore volume and by micro-, meso- and macropore
volumes which comprised about 80-90+%, 10-20%
and 1-2% of the total volume, respectively (Table 1).
Information on total surface area distribution among
a reference carbon and experimental GACs having the
best and poorest abilities to adsorb sugar colorants is

80

60

8
N
t=,.

_o
0

40

(D

20

0
C1 C2
Commercial Carbons

12345678
Rice Hulls

12345678
Rice Straw

12345678
Sugarcane Bagasse

Fig. 2. Percent sugar decolorization of commercial decolorizing carbons and experimental carbons using different binders and by-products.
Values given are means of duplicate determinations where the standard error did not exceed 5%. The GACs are identified by the numbering
scheme given in the legend to Fig. 1.

49

B. Pendyal et al./Bioresource Technology 69 (1999) 45-51

Table 1
Pore volumes for a commercial decolorizing carbon and eight experimental carbons ranked as the four highest a and four lowesta in adsorption
of sugar colorants (molasses color removed plus sugar decolorization)
Carbon

Total pore volume (cm3/g)

Micropore volume (cm3/g)

Mesopore volume (cm3/g)

Macropore volume (cm3/g)

Cane Cal (133)

SB/BM/I:I (113.5)
SB/CM/I:0.5 (104.5)
SB/CT/I:I (102.5)
SB/CS/I:0.5 (99.5)
RH/CS/I:I (41.5)
RH/CS/I:0.5 (37.5)
RS/CT/I:I (29.0)
RS/CT/I:0.5 (25.5)

0.547
0.314
0.244
0.132
0.230
0.186
0.085
0.088
0.013

0.353 (64.5%) b
0.232 (73.9%)
0.189 (77.4%)
0.084 (63.6%)
0.158 (68.7%)
0.149 (80.1%)
0.072 (84.7%)
0.070 (79.5%)
0.012 (92.3%)

0.169 (30.9%)
0.077 (24.5%)
0.044 (18.0%)
0.042 (31.8%)
0.061 (26.5%)
0.036 (19.4%)
0.011 (12.9%)
0.017 (19.3%)
0.001 (7.7%)

0.025 (4.6%)
0.004 (1.3%)
0.011 (4.5%)
0.006 (4.5%)
0.011 (4.8%)
0.002 (1.1%)
0.002 (2.4%)
0.002 (2.3%)
0.000 (0.0%)

aCarbons were ranked by adding the mean values for molasses color removed and sugar deeolorization to develop a total score. Total scores
are given in parentheses next to the specific carbon. Carbon codes are as follows: (RH) rice hulls; (RS) rice straw; (SB) sugarcane bagasse; (CT)
coal tar; (CM) sugarcane molasses; (BM) sugarbeet molasses; (CS) corn syrup. Binder ratios are either 1:1 or 1:0.5.
bValues are the percentages of the total pore volume which are attributed to the micro - - , meso - - , and macropores. The percentages may
not total 100% due to rounding.

p r o v i d e d in T a b l e 2. T h e r e f e r e n c e c a r b o n has the
lowest p e r c e n t a g e o f m i c r o p o r e surface a r e a o f all the
carbons, b u t the highest total surface area. G e n e r a l l y ,
the b e s t e x p e r i m e n t a l d e c o l o r i z e r s have relatively high
total surface a r e a s a n d m i c r o p o r e a n d e x t e r n a l surface
a r e a s c o m p r i s i n g 8 0 - 9 0 % a n d 1 0 - 2 0 % o f the total,
respectively. This is a slightly h i g h e r p e r c e n t a g e o f
m i c r o p o r e surface a r e a a n d lower p e r c e n t a g e o f
e x t e r n a l surface a r e a t h a n C a n e Cal. T h e b a g a s s e
c a r b o n with coal tar b i n d e r ( S B / C T / I : I ) h a d an exceptionally low t o t a l surface a r e a c o m p a r e d to the o t h e r
high s u g a r d e c o l o r i z e r s . H o w e v e r , its p e r c e n t a g e o f
m i c r o p o r e a n d e x t e r n a l surface a r e a s w e r e closest to
C a n e Cal. In g e n e r a l , the p o o r e s t d e c o l o r i z e r s w e r e
c h a r a c t e r i z e d by lower total surface areas, namely, a
> 9 0 % m i c r o p o r e surface a r e a a n d < 1 0 % e x t e r n a l
surface area.

C a r b o n s with a large p e r c e n t a g e o f m i c r o p o r e
v o l u m e o r surface a r e a w e r e p o o r a d s o r b e r s o f sugar
colorants. T h e p r e s e n c e o f high m i c r o p o r o s i t y w o u l d
m a k e a d s o r p t i o n o f l a r g e r molecules, as f o u n d in sugar
colorants, p r o b l e m a t i c . T h e s e large m o l e c u l e s w o u l d
have difficulty e n t e r i n g a n d navigating t h r o u g h the
m i c r o p o r e s with the possibility that the m i c r o p o r e s
c o u l d b e c o m e clogged, t h e r e b y effectively closing down
f u r t h e r a d s o r p t i o n . A c c o r d i n g to W i g m a n s (1989), an
a c t i v a t e d c a r b o n with a high p e r c e n t a g e o f m i c r o p o r e s
will t e n d to a d s o r b low m o l e c u l a r weight c o m p o u n d s
a n d as the p e r c e n t a g e o f m i c r o p o r e s d e c r e a s e s , the
c a r b o n can a d s o r b c o m p o u n d s with a b r o a d e r r a n g e o f
m o l e c u l a r sizes. T h e p r e s e n c e o f m e s o - a n d m a c r o p o r e s m a y a d s o r b the l a r g e r c o l o r a n t m o l e c u l e s while
allowing t h e s m a l l e r m o l e c u l e s access to the microp o r e s . T h e results in T a b l e s 1 a n d 2 f u r t h e r e m p h a s i z e

Table 2
Micropore and external (mesopore+macropore) surface areas for a commercial carbon and eight experimental carbons ranked as the four
highest a and four lowest~ in adsorption of sugar colorants (molasses color removed and sugar decolorization)
Carbon

Micropore surface area (m2/g)

Cane Cal
SB/BM/I:I
SB/CM/I:O.5
SB/CT/I:I
SB/CS/I:O.5
RH/CS/I:I
RH/CS/1.05
RS/CT/I:I
RS/CT/I:0.5

685 (76.3%) c
448 (85.5%)
363 (91.2%)
162 (83.1%)
304 (86.6%)
285 (85.1%)
139 (93.3%)
135 (88.8%)
23.2 (99.6%)

External surface areab (m2/g)

147 (23.7%)
75.7 (14.5%)
35.4 (8.8%)
33.1 (16.9%)
46.7 (13.4%)
49.9 (14.9%)
10.1 (6.7%)
16.7 (11.2%)
0.1 (0.4%)

Total surface area (m2/g)

832
524
398
195
351
335
149
152
23.3

aCarbon rankings are described in Table 1.

bExternal surface area includes both mesopore and macropore surface areas. Macropore surface areas were never greater than 0.5% of the
total surface area.
CValues are the percentages of the total surface area which are attributed to the micropore and external surface areas.

50

B. Pendyal et aL/Bioresource Technology 69 (1999) 45-51

the importance of pore size distribution for activated

carbons used for specific purposes.

4. Conclusions
The adsorption of sugar colorants by the experimental carbons might be improved further by alterations in activation conditions. These include (1)
increasing burn-off during activation, (2) employing
another activation strategy and/or (3) increasing the
activation temperature. According to Wojsz and
Rozwadowski (1989), increasing the level of burn-off
during activation to 4 0 - 5 0 % would lead to pore
enlargement and a subsequent shift to larger pore
sizes. Therefore, a m o r e balanced pore size distribution
with less emphasis on microporosity and more
emphasis on meso- and macroporosity is possible.
The use of steam for activation rather than carbon
dioxide could be attempted. Steam is m o r e reactive
than carbon dioxide at a given temperature (Rodriguez-Reinoso and Molina-Sabio, 1992). The water
molecule has a smaller molecular dimension than
carbon dioxide, which leads to faster diffusion into the
porous char structure and a faster reaction rate. The
reaction rate for steam is approximately three times
faster than for carbon dioxide at 800C (Gergova et al.,
1992). Replacing carbon dioxide with steam as
activating agent could increase burn-off and perhaps
lower activation time.
In this study, activation of the GACs was carried out
at 800C. Increasing the activation temperature to
900C may produce better sugar decolorizing carbons,
Ko et al. (1992) found a transformation from a more
closed pore structure to a more open pore structure
occurred at 900C with carbon dioxide as activating
gas, thereby enhancing activated carbon porosity and
thus facilitating adsorption.
The particular by-product used as starting material
for G A C production appeared to exert influence over a
carbon's ability to remove sugar colorants. Sugarcane
bagasse was a superior feedstock in this regard when
c o m p a r e d to rice hulls and rice straw regardless of
binder used. Owing to different chemical composition
and structure of the by-products, the dynamics of pore
structure formation and development of new pores
during the activation process were different for each
by-product. We observed that sugarcane bagasse, for
example, developed a pore volume and pore area
profile which was generally different from the profile
developed by rice hulls and straw. Adsorptive properties of some bagasse-based G A C s were similar to the
commercial carbons which were better
sugar
decolorizers.
Within the limitations of this study and an acknowlegdment that further investigation is needed to

produce a by-product-based G A C with sugar colorant

adsorption equal to or greater than the reference
carbons, we have demonstrated that GACs consisting
of sugarcane bagasse as precursor have the closest
requisite adsorptive properties to our reference
carbons. Thus, we believe them to be the most suitable
candidates for sugar decolorization. These by-product/
binder combinations should be considered for further
research in this area.

Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge Dr Willem
K a m p e n for generously providing laboratory space and
Dr Christopher Toles for determining pore volume and
pore surface area and his helpful comments regarding
the manuscript. The research is in partial fulfillment of
a Masters of Science degree for one of us (B.P.) and
was supported by USDA-ARS, Specific Cooperative
A g r e e m e n t #58-6435-3-121. Mention of names of
companies or commercial products is solely for the
purpose of providing specific information and does not
imply recommendation or endorsement by the US
D e p a r t m e n t of Agriculture over others not mentioned.

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