Regeneration of Phenol-Saturated Activated Carbon by Supercritical Water: Effect of and Alkali Metal Catalysts
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 145, Issue 12
Abstract
The aim of this work was to study the supercritical water (SCW) regeneration of phenol-saturated activated carbon (AC) with the and alkali metal catalyst (, NaOH, , and KOH) addition. The results showed that SCW could effectively regenerate AC in the 385–425°C range without any additives, but large and small amounts of phenol and dibenzofuran were present in the liquid phase, respectively, which would result in secondary pollution. The addition enhanced the decomposition of phenol and increased the yield. With the addition of and an alkali metal catalyst, SCW further decreased the phenol and dibenzofuran yields but increased the and yields. Active component-supported (Cu-Ce-O, Fe-Ce-O, Ni-Zn-Pt, and Ni-Co-Pt) AC adsorbents might have decomposed some of the phenol during the phenol adsorption process, which resulted in relatively small amounts of phenol adsorbed on the AC and a decrease of the liquid (phenol and dibenzofuran) and gaseous ( and ) yields. SCW regeneration increased the surface area and pore volume of the AC and raised the adsorption capacity. The and alkali metal catalyst addition can be used to achieve the rapid, efficient, and harmless regeneration of AC in SCW at a lower temperature (385°C).
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Data Availability Statement
No data, models, or code were generated or used during the study.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (41761072 and 21277064), High-Level Talent Foundation of Kunming University of Science and Technology (1411909411), and the Analysis and Testing Foundation of Kunming University of Science and Technology (2017T20160073). We thank LetPub (www.letpub.com) for linguistic assistance during the preparation of this manuscript.
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Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 145 • Issue 12 • December 2019
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©2019 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jan 3, 2019
Accepted: Mar 29, 2019
Published online: Sep 24, 2019
Published in print: Dec 1, 2019
Discussion open until: Feb 24, 2020
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