Study on regeneration of waste powder activated carbon through pyrolysis and its adsorption capacity of phosphorus.

The regeneration of WPAC through pyrolysis and its adsorption capacity of phosphorus were studied. The optimum conditions for WPAC regeneration were 650 °C and 2 h which resulted in a recovery of BET surface and total pore volume with a value of 1161.4 m2 /g and 1.2176 m3 /g. WPAC had a maximum PO4 3- -P adsorption capacity of 9.65 mg/g which was 48.93% of PAC, while RWPAC had a maximum PO4 3- -P adsorption capacity of 15.31 mg/g which was 77.64% of PAC. The kinetic analysis revealed that Langmuir model could well describe the adsorption process of PAC, WPAC and RWPAC on PO4 3- -P and the PO4 3- -P adsorption followed the pseudo-second-order model.