ChemChar Process for Destruction of Sorbed Hexachlorobenzene with Char Sorbent Regeneration

The ChemChar reverse‐burn gasification process has been previously described1–2. In the present work, the ChemChar Process was evaluated to determine its effectiveness in regenerating spent activated coal char, as well as its destruction efficiency for the model surrogate compound hexachlorobenzene (HCB). This non‐incinerative, thermochemical gasification process pyrolyzes the sorbed wastes and restores the sorptive capacity of the char in one energy‐efficient step, that is virtually non‐polluting. A breakthrough assay method was used for analysis of the resultant reactivated char to determine its effectiveness as a sorbent after regeneration. The content of the gaseous effluent from the regeneration process was analyzed by GC‐MS and the destruction and removal efficiency was found to exceed 99.99% for the process. Analysis of the effluent from the process showed that potentially thermally‐synthesized hazardous products particularly polychlorinated dibenzo‐dioxins, and polychlorinated dibenzo‐furans, are absent. The process produces good quality regenerated char simply and inexpensively with a minimum of char loss, and the char can be regenerated several times.