Ultrasonic–Thermal Regeneration of Spent Powdered Activated Carbon

Tingting Zhang (), Yanling Yang, Xing Li, Zhiwei Zhou and Bigui Wei
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Tingting Zhang: School of Environmental and Municipal Engineering, Lanzhou Jiaotong University, Lanzhou 730070, China
Yanling Yang: Faculty of Architecture, Civil and Transportation Engineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China
Xing Li: Faculty of Architecture, Civil and Transportation Engineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China
Zhiwei Zhou: Faculty of Architecture, Civil and Transportation Engineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China
Bigui Wei: School of Environmental and Municipal Engineering, Lanzhou Jiaotong University, Lanzhou 730070, China

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 11, 1-15

Abstract: This study investigated the ultrasonic–thermal regeneration of powdered activated carbon (PAC) spent using 4-chlorophenol (4-CP). Similarly, a thermal regeneration process was also studied and the reaction conditions (i.e., regeneration temperature, heating rate, regeneration time) were tested. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis were applied to characterize the regenerated PACs under different treatments (thermal, ultrasonic and ultrasonic–thermal) and also compare them with the fresh and exhausted PACs. According to our regeneration observations, the ideal regeneration parameters were determined to be a 40 kHz frequency, 0.18 W/mL sonication power, 0.1 M NaOH and 50% ( v / v ) ethyl alcohol as the regeneration solution, and 1 g/L of saturated PAC mass with thermal regeneration as the second stage at 500 °C, desorbed for 30 min with a heating rate of 20 °C min −1 . Under these conditions, the RE value achieved 90.99% and the η value reached 5.6%. The results of FTIR, XPS and XRD revealed that the oxygen functional group content of ultrasonic–thermal regenerated PAC significantly increased. These oxygenous groups exerted a positive effect on the adsorption process of the regenerated PAC and the subsequent adsorption–regeneration process.

Keywords: ultrasonic; thermal; regeneration; powdered activated carbon; characteristic (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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