Regeneration / Active Carbon

Activated carbon is an expensive product. In most of the cases the cost of replacing the saturated carbon would be prohibitive. It should therefore be regenerated, and four methods have been developed for this purpose:

• Steam regeneration

This method is restricted to regenerating carbon which has only retained a few very volatile products.

• Thermal regeneration

By pyrolysis and burning off of adsorbed organic substances. In order to avoid igniting the carbon, it is heated to about 800 °C in a controlled atmosphere. This is the widely used method and regenerates the carbon very well, but it has two disadvantages: it requires considerable investment in either a multiple-hearth furnace and it causes high carbon losses.

• Chemical regeneration

Some process based on the action of a solvent used at a temperature of approximately 100 °C and with a high pH.

• Biological regeneration

This method of regeneration has not yet been applied on an industrial scale.

Overview different kinds of filtermedia.