Aqueous-Phase Temperature Swing Adsorption for Pesticide Removal

Recently, activated carbon adsorption for water treatment regained substantial attention due to the emerging task to remove trace organic compounds such as pesticides. In many applications, especially in decentralized water treatment, one major drawback of adsorbents is their limited recyclability due to inadequate logistics or uneconomical reactivation. In this lab-scale study, we present the temperature swing adsorption in the aqueous phase that allows the in situ regeneration of fixed-bed adsorbers, and prove its technical feasibility. Complying with circular water economy principles, we eliminated the pivotal need for regular replacement and consumables by employing only clean water instead of dedicated regeneration solutions. Adsorption of the herbicide amitrole in aqueous solution on granular activated carbon was exothermic (ΔH = −14.4 ± 3.2 kJ mol–1 for T = 20–94 °C) and followed the Freundlich model. The proposed method consisting of a short counterflow flush with liquid water at 125 °C effectively regenerated the adsorbent. Hence, we obtained a cyclic steady state operation with breakthrough after 122 ± 14 bed volumes (at cout/cin = 0.2), cycle-average rejection of 90 ± 1%, and water recovery of up to 78 ± 4%. No thermal aging of adsorbent was observed over the investigated 17 cycles.