Optimizing crushing processing parameters of oil palm shell charcoal

Abstract

Ball mill is a machine that used to produce powder size of materials from ceramics, glass and coal. This project is optimizing ball mill processing parameters in order to obtain a maximum output with permitted range size of powder. Activated carbon palm oil charcoal is selected as a material to be ground. Powdered activated carbon (PAC) of palm oil has a multipurpose usage such as filter for drinking water and absorption agent in wastewater treatment. In this project, granular activated carbon form of palm oil with a uniform size distribution was used in the experiment. Meanwhile, each experiment also used a constant amount of material, namely 100gram per experiment. Four independent variables were investigated, namely processing time, size of grinding media, grinding media quantity and rotation speed of jar. Sieve shaker was used to separate between coarse and fine particles size of material. Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) was used to confirm size of powder that had produced. The amount of PAC produced was the main focus and act as a response value. Full factorial experimental designs with two levels of variables were used. Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to find the set of operating conditions for this process variables that result in the producing the maximum output. Result showed that all chosen independent variables were significant and contributes for obtaining maximum output.