PRODUCTION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF POTASSIUM CARBONATE FROM BANANA PEELS

Abstract

In Ethiopia, agriculture is a way of life for which agricultural land is an indispensable resource up on which the welfare of the society built in; though, our environment is facing challengesfrom waste disposals. From those wastes, banana peels are playing their own contribution due to huge consumption. Hence, the main aim of this project was to produce potassium carbonate from those wastes by pyrolysis. The ash method was chosen from other alternative methods since it is preferable to extract K2CO3 from the banana peels by converting to ash. Several studies show that some fruit peels like banana peel contain alkali metals such as, potassium, sodium, calcium and magnesium with a high constituent of potassium which is a source for production of potassium carbonate. These metals are present in the form of various salts. When the plant matter or fruit peel is subjected to heat, burnt in presence of air, the metals are oxidized to metal oxides. Carbon dioxide produced during burning of banana peel, combines with potassium oxide to produce potassium carbonate. Potassium carbonates have various uses in flat glass, chemicals, and soap, pulp and paper production sectors. During the experiment the raw material was characterized by its moisture content to be 87.2% and also the ash content became 13.64%. After characterization of the peels the samples were burnt in a furnace at different temperatures to see its effect and resulted with 30g of ash which is then filtered, and evaporated for 5hours finally ended with a yield of 15.6g of potassium carbonate. Finally, the produced potassium carbonate was characterized by observing its reactivity, solubility, alkaline property, color.