Use of Surfactant-Enhanced Carbon Regeneration to Remove Volatile Organics from Spent Activated Carbon

Surfactant-enhanced carbon regeneration uses a concentrated surfactant solution to regenerate spent activated carbon. A water flush is then used to remove residual surfactant from the carbon bed. In this study, regeneration of carbon containing either toluene or amyl acetate was investigated. The process was found to effectively regenerate carbon containing either solute at various loading levels. Studies of the effect of regenerant solution flow rate and surfactant concentration indicate that the removal of toluene was nearly equilibrium limited, while amyl acetate exhibited significant mass transfer resistance. The residual surfactant on the carbon following the regeneration was readily removed by a water flush. The carbon showed no signs of serious degradation over nine regeneration cycles.