Optimization of chemical regeneration procedures of spent activated carbon

Ghasemzadeh, Naser; Ghadiri, Mohammad; Behroozsarand, Alireza

doi:10.22104/aet.2017.504

Optimization of chemical regeneration procedures of spent activated carbon

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Urmia University of Technology, Urmia, Iran.

10.22104/aet.2017.504

Abstract

The chemical regeneration of granular activated carbon exhausted in a petrochemical wastewater unit was investigated. Gas chromatography and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy demonstrated that spent activated carbon carries large types of organic and inorganic materials. Diverse chemical solvents were adopted in comparison with traditional chemical solvents and regeneration efficiency was investigated for each approach. The optimum procedure and optimum condition including temperature, concentration of solvent, and time were determined. The regenerated activated carbon was used in the adsorption of methylene blue (MB) in order to find its regeneration efficiency. The regeneration efficiency can be identified by comparing of amount of MB absorbed by the fresh and regenerated activated carbon. The best acidic regenerator was hydrofluoric acid. The higher the temperature causes the faster desorption rate and consequently, the higher regeneration efficiency. The regeneration efficiency increased by means of an increase in the time of regeneration and solvent concentration, but there was an optimum time and solvent concentration for regeneration. The optimum temperature, solvent concentration and regeneration time obtained was 80 ⁰C, 3 molar and 3 hours, respectively.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Adsorption

References

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