Electrochemical regeneration of granular activated carbons loaded with phenol and natural organic matter.

The main objective of this study was to assess the performance of electrochemical regeneration of granular activated carbon via a set of bench-scale experiments using different operating conditions in the regeneration of several different activated carbons loaded with phenol or natural organic matter. The regeneration efficiency can be increased by increasing the charge applied, whether this was achieved by an increase in current or regeneration time. The degree of phenol-adsorption saturation did not significantly affect the regeneration efficiencies. The regeneration efficiencies of the various types of phenol-loaded activated carbon were quite similar despite the differences in their conductivity. The activated carbon exhibiting fully reversible adsorption of phenol had slightly higher regeneration efficiencies than those involving partially irreversible adsorption. Electrochemical regeneration of activated carbon is feasible at a laboratory scale as regeneration efficiencies up to 80% were achieved during electrochemical regeneration of phenol-loaded or natural organic matter-loaded activated carbons.