A comparison of three methods to regenerate activated carbon saturated by diesel fuels

Abstract

The three regeneration methods (thermal treatment, ultrasonication, and solvent extraction) were studied to regenerate the adsorptive capacity of the activated carbons (ACs) that were saturated by the nitrogen and sulphur containing compounds of diesel fuels. This is one of the few reports that give attention to the regeneration of heteroaromatic compounds contaminated ACs. Both model diesel and light cycled oil (LCO) were served as feedstocks. High regeneration rates can be obtained for all three approaches when model diesel was used as the feed. As model diesel was replaced by LCO, a significant drop in capacity restoration can be observed for the first few cycles and then the decrease rate slowed down. Solvent extraction outperformed the other two methods. The causes to lower regeneration performance were also analysed. It is shown that the regenerated carbons had a lower porosity and surface area and fewer surface oxygen functional groups than fresh carbon regardless of the regeneration methods employed. Significant micropore blockage was observed in the carbon regenerated by the thermal approach due to the coke deposit under thermal conditions. Mesopores formed during the regeneration by ultrasonication are considered to promote the carbon adsorption capacity.

Influence of the properties of 7 micro-grain activated carbons on organic micropollutants removal from wastewater effluent

“…µGACs physical, textural and chemical properties The properties of the 7 µGACs are summarized in Table 1. The values obtained for the BET surface were lower for CC, RS and NR (748, 527 and 885 m²/g, respectively) which are regenerated µGACs, showing as expected that reactivation had a substantial negative impact on ACs textural properties (Han et al, 2014). The BET surface was positively correlated with both the total porous volume (rPearson = 0.85, p-value = 0.014), the microporous volume (rPearson = 0.99, p-value < 0.001), the percentage of microporous volume (rPearson = 0.96, p-value < 0.001) and negatively correlated with the average pore size (rPearson = -0.95, p-value = 0.001).…”

Regeneration study of ecat-R as adsorbent for denitrogenation and desulfurization of diesel fuels

“…The VP decreased over the cycles therefore the areas under the curves of the regenerated ecat-R-SA samples decreased in all pore range [15,19,20]. The pore range increased over the cycles, which explains increase in the pore radius.…”

Removal of Hydrogen Peroxide Residuals and By-Product Bromate from Advanced Oxidation Processes by Granular Activated Carbon

“…Usually, regardless of the regeneration method used, the porosity, specific surface area and surface oxygen functional groups on the surface of the regenerated GAC are less than that of the virgin GAC. Mesopores formed during the regeneration are considered to promote the carbon adsorption capacity [39]. Correspondingly, BrO3 − removal ability was also recovered after GAC regeneration, but not much (Figure 2).…”