Introduction

Adsorption is integral to a broad spectrum of physical, biological, and chemical processes and operations in the environmental field. Purification of gases by adsorption has played a major role in air pollution control, and adsorption of dissolved impurities from solution has been widely employed for water purification. Adsorption is now viewed as a superior method for wastewater treatment and water reclamation. Applications of adsorption for chemical processing, air pollution control, and water treatment are well known. Applications in wastewater treatment and water pollution control are generally not as well recognized, nor as well understood. The process has been demonstrated to be widely effective for removing dissolved organic substances from wastewaters, but it should not be viewed as a catholicon for waste treatment, nor should its application be made in an empirical fashion. Carbon has been used as an adsorbent for centuries. Early uses of carbon were reported for water filtration and for sugar solution purification. Activated carbons ability to remove a large variety of compounds from contaminated waters has led to its increased use in the last thirty years. Recent changes in water discharge standards regarding toxic pollutants have placed additional emphasis on this technology. Adsorption is a natural process by which molecules of a dissolved compound collect on and adhere to the surface of an adsorbent solid. Adsorption occurs when the attractive forces at the carbon surface overcome the attractive forces of the liquid. Granular activated carbon is a particularly good adsorbent medium due to its high surface area to volume ratio. One gram of a typical commercial activated carbon will have a surface area equivalent to 1,000 square meters. This high surface area permits the accumulation of a large number of contaminant molecules. Charcoal water filtration is in fact an ancient technique, and today is employed at the municipal scale for water treatment. The charcoal that is used in water treatment plants, however, is a high-grade material produced using an industrial process to increase its reactivity and enhance its capacity as a filtration medium (often called granular activated carbon, or GAC). The US EPA, the World Health Organization and numerous academic studies identify granular activated carbon (GAC) as the best available technology for the control of many agrichemicals and synthetic organic chemicals in drinking water.

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Now, typically the process is to pass the contaminated water from the column of activated carbon (adsorbent) so that the impurities get adsorbed on the surface of activated carbon. But the problem arises when the carbon bed gets heavily loaded with the impurities and gets saturated. There are various solutions available to the problem like back-wash of the bed with water and applying high temp to dehumidify it, simple exposure to UV light, simple heating at elevated temperatures. The exposure to UV light is very costly method and by simply heating at elevated temperatures the pores of carbon gets deteriorated. So the best available option is to back-wash it with water.

Fig 1: Typical adsorption process

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Objective
The main objective of this report is to come up with a new idea of regeneration of the spent activated carbon by using microorganism.

Methodology and Analysis

Adsorption of an impurity from water on to activated carbon may result from solute hydrophobicity, or it may be caused by a high affinity of the solute for the carbon. For most systems encountered in waste treatment, adsorption results from a combination of these factors. The solubility of a substance in water is significant: solubility in the sense of the chemical compatibility between the water and the solute. The more hydrophilic a substance the less likely it is to be adsorbed. Conversely, a hydrophobic substance will more likely be adsorbed. In the context of solute affinity for the solid, it is common to distinguish between three types of adsorption. The affinity may be predominantly due to: (1) Electrical attraction of the solute to the adsorbent (exchange adsorption). (2) Vander Waals attraction (physical or ideal adsorption). (3) Chemical reaction (chemisorption or chemical adsorption). Now once the adsorption is completed and carbon has undergone multiple adsorptions subsequently the carbon gets heavily loaded with the organic impurities and it gets saturated with the loaded impurities. Now for economic reasons of the process, the carbon needs to be regenerated of its re-use. The traditional method used for the regeneration of the carbon bed is the back-wash of the carbon bed with pure water. The process here involved is that with the back-wash of the water the impurities gets again dissolved the back stream of water. So sensibly there is no permanent disposal of the impurities, rather it is just transferred.

copyright, Shailesh Dubey- CEPT university

So to come up with the solution, we use microorganisms. Microorganisms regenerate the surface of activated carbon using sorbed organic substrate as a source of food and energy. Aromatic hydrocarbons, particularly phenols, including their chlorinated derivatives and industrial waste water containing synthetic organic compounds and explosives-contaminated ground water are the major removal targets in adsorption-bio regeneration process. Popular mechanisms of bio regeneration include exoenzymatic hypothesis and biodegradation following desorption. Efficiency of bio regeneration can be quantified using direct determination of the substrate content on the adsorbent. This synergic effect of combination of biological and chemical component is very simple to use. The pilot study can be performed by making a solution of water containing phenol or any other organic impurity and of various concentrations so that we can infer that this method is possible for what range of concentration of impurity. This solution should be allowed to get adsorbed on the granular activated carbon for at least 2 hours to get completely adsorbed. While adsorbing the impurities the temperature should be maintained at room temperature and stirring must not be rigorous. Once the impurity gets adsorbed on the carbon the solution is to be filtered using whattman filter paper. The liquid will pass through the paper and the paste of activated carbon will be retained on the paper. Now a strain of compatible microorganism is to be taken and it should be mixed with the paste of activated carbon and a growth media is to be initially provided to help the culture grow better. This whole system must be kept on constant stirring for at least 24 hrs. During this time period it is estimated that since the microorganism can consume the organic impurity as its source of nutrition, the concentration of organic impurity will reduce in carbon and will increase in the strain liquid. After 24 hrs the solution is taken out and carbon and strain portions are separated by filter paper and analysed separately using Gas-liquid chromatography (GLC) or High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). The analysis is done to obtain the concentration of phenol in both the portions. The industry scale application of this method may comprise of large columns of carbon bed wherein the microorganisms will be immobilized in the bed itself so that they can directly consume the impurities and there is no separate need of back-wash with water and it must be calculated that what is the estimated life of the microorganisms and upto what extent they can regenerate.

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By using this method for regeneration of spent activated carbon, the estimated percentage of regeneration of is expected to be 60 to 70 % approximately.

Conclusion
Intraparticle mass transfer resistance, incomplete regeneration, and microbial fouling are some of the problems needed to be addressed adequately. A detailed techno-economic evaluation is also required to assess the commercial aspects of bio regeneration. This method of regeneration can turn out to be very effective and environmental friendly as it rectifies the disposal problem of the waste or impure waters from industries.

References
1. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21152991 2. http://www.carbtrol.com/water&waste.pdf 3. http://www.iupac.org/publications/pac/pdf/1974/pdf/3703x0375.pdf 4. http://www.iupac.org/publications/pac/pdf/1974/pdf/3703x0375.pdf

copyright, Shailesh Dubey- CEPT university