Regeneration of exhausted activated carbon by electrochemical method

The regeneration of coconut shell activated carbon contaminated with phenol was systematically investigated by electrochemical method under different operating conditions. The effects of several operating parameters on the electrochemical regeneration efficiency were measured at room temperature. The experimental results show that the electrochemical method can be used to regenerate the activated carbon exhausted with phenol. The electrochemical regeneration efficiency depends on several operating variables such as electrolyte concentration, regeneration current intensity and regeneration time. The residual phenol concentration in solution was much lower and the regeneration efficiency can reach 85.2% in a stirred electrochemical reactor after regeneration for 5 h. © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.