IN-PLACE ELECTRICALLY-HEATED REGENERATION OF VAPOR-PHASE ACTUATED CARBON

AIR STRIPPING IS AN ESTABLISHED METHOD OF REMOVING A WIDE VARIETY OF VOLATILE ORGANIC CONTAMINANTS FROM GROUNDWATER. UTILIZATION OF THIS PROCESS REMOVES THE PRIORITY POLLUTANT FROM THE LIQUID STREAM AND DISCHARGES THE POLLUTANT INTO THE AIR STREAM. VAPOR PHASE ABSORPTION ON GRANULAR ACTIVATED CARBON (GAC) HAS PROVEN SUCCESSFUL IN TREATING THE AIR STREAM, BUT CONVENTIONAL REGENERATION METHODS ARE EXPENSIVE, REQUIRE TRANSFER OF THE CARBON, AND DEGRADE THE CARBON. THE OBJECTIVE OF THE PROPOSED PROGRAM IS TO DETERMINE THE FEASIBILITY OF USING ELECTRICALLY-HEATED PROCESSES FOR THE IN-PLACE REGENERATION OF VAPOR-PHASE GAC. TWO PROCESSES WILL BE CONSIDERED, NAMELY ELECTRIC RESISTANCE HEATING, USING THE CARBON ITSELF AS THE RESISTANCE, AND MICROWAVE HEATING. LABORATORY-SCALE EXPERIMENTS WILL BE CARRIED OUT TO DETERMINE THE OPTIMUM TEMPERATURE AT WHICH THE CARBON CAN BE EFFICIENTLY REGENERATED. BASED ON THESE RESULTS, PROCESS FLOW DIAGRAMS FOR AN INTEGRATED AIR STRIPPING, VAPOR-PHASE GAC ADSORPTION, AND REGENERATION PROCESS WILL BE DEVELOPED AND ESTIMATES MADE OF THE CAPITAL AND OPERATING COSTS OF THE INTEGRATED SYSTEM. THE BEST INTEGRATED SYSTEM WOULD BE RECOMMENDED FOR FURTHER PILOT SCALE TESTING IN PHASE II.