Use of Anionic Surfactant in Regeneration of Spent Activated Carbon

Abstract

Surfactant-enhanced carbon regeneration (SECR) is a regeneration process that utilizes surfactant solution to dissolve adsorbed organic from spent activated carbon. Sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and methyl ester sulfonate (MES) are anionic surfactants that are used in this investigation. The study is done in 3 steps: sample characterization, regeneration and water flushing step. The proximate analysis of spent activate carbon contains 27.5% moisture, 27.2% volatile matter content, 10% total ash content. The spent activated carbon also contains 18.4% benzene. In regeneration step, the benzene removal by SDS and MES solution were compared. The effect of concentration, solution flow rate and temperature are studied. As expected, the benzene removal increased as the concentration of SDS or MES increased and the benzene removal by MES is higher than that by SDS at the same concentration. However, SDS was easier to be removed in washing step with deionized water than MES.