Low‐Voltage Arcing Regeneration of Saturated Activated Carbon With a Service Life of 10 Years in Water Treatment

ABSTRACT Regenerating saturated activated carbon (SAC) is economically and environmentally vital. This study proposes a low‐voltage arcing regeneration technology, applying it to SAC used for 10 years (SAC‐10) and comparing it to SAC used for 1 year (SAC‐1). SAC‐1's resistance at room temperature is 15.5 Ω, compared to SAC‐10's 31.9 kΩ. High resistance in SAC‐10 challenges low‐voltage arcing regeneration, limiting the final outlet temperature to 600°C and achieving only 41.3% regeneration efficiency. In contrast, SAC‐1 reaches 850°C with 82.0% efficiency. Subsequently, a combination heating regeneration method was proposed, preheating SAC to 350°C to reduce resistance before entering the low‐voltage arcing device. This approach allowed both SAC‐1 and SAC‐10 to reach 850°C, confirming successful regeneration. Overall, the low‐voltage arcing method achieves a minimum energy consumption of 0.4 kW·h/kg and a production rate of 25 kg/h, which shows significant promise for industrial‐scale application.