ABSTRACT
Regeneration of activated carbon is required in all but the smallest adsorption systems. Proper control of reactivation conditions is essential to renewing the carbon's adsorptive capacity and minimizing carbon losses. The authors discuss two regeneration alternatives: multiple hearth and infrared furnaces. The carbon being reactivated passes through three conditions in the course of reactivation: drying, heating, and reaction with CO2 and H2O from the gases. In carbon reactivation the active carbon itself passes through the furnace virtually as a "free ride". The reactivated product rate has almost nothing to do with furnace size requirement or operation. There have been a sufficient number of full scale applications of the multiple hearth furnace to reactivation of carbon in many fields so that no pilot plant work is required to establish the sizing or design details, unless the mode of application or the stream to which the carbon is applied is very unusual.
