Whether is there any need for mixing with some chemicals? or can we just take the ash from operating the material in muffle furnace?
A validated regeneration procedure is used for activation before first process operation.
In my chemical engineering teaching lab at Yale University, I use charcoal as an adsorbent. When this bed gets saturated, I use steam to heat up the charcoal bed to desorb the adsorbate gas. Same process is used in the chemical process industry.
Hope this helps answer you question.
Professor Yehia Khalil, Yale University, USA
Fellow of the University of Oxford, United Kingdom
It depends on the system itself. If you are using a certain adsorbent to adsorb heavy metals then you can regenerate the adsorbent using acid solution. In other cases basic solutions is the best choice for activation and regeneration.
On using silica gel to adsorb water the particles can be regenerated through thermal activation (regeneration) using super saturated steam. The same procedure can be applied in the case of using charcoal and activated carbon.
In your case when you prepare the adsorbent, after pyrolysis (heating at relatively high temperature under inert atmosphere) you can activate the adsorbent using KOH solution then this adsorbent is dried and put in the muffle again under inert atmosphere to be used for the removal of heavy metals.
Answer of Mr Eslam is nice.
I would like to further add to this answer.
The question is on activation of adsorbent!
The material to be used as an adsorbent should be known. Accordingly, a catalyst is to be selected which could be an acid, or base or any other material as well. Enough amount of the catalyst has to be added to the material: soak the material in adsorbent. Then the material is to be heated at relatively a high temperature in an inert atmosphere for 1-2 h. After this heating the material develops pores and has increased volume. This is the activated material, and can be used for removal of gases or contaminants.
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