Cyclic regeneration of activated carbon in fluidized beds

Abstract

Abstract Cyclic thermal regeneration of powdered activated carbon containing adsorbed sucrose was studied in fluidized beds at 1151° K and 101.3 kPa (1 atm). The regeneration process consists of three steps: (1) drying, (2), thermal decomposition, and (3), gasification of residual carbon with steam. The maximum restoration of adsorption capacity (98.5% recovery after each regeneration) was obtained when gasification removed an amount of carbon equal to the residual adsorbed carbon after thermal decomposition. It was verified that the time required to attain optimum regeneration could be determined from available kinetics data for the steam‐carbon reaction. For our sucrose‐activated carbon system this time was about 180 s at 1151°K.