International Journal of Advanced Engineering, Management and Science (IJAEMS) [Vol-6, Issue-11, Nov-2020] https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijaems.611.1 ISSN: 2454-1311 www.ijaems.com Page | 456 Thermal regeneration of activated carbon saturated with nitrate ions from an artisanal furnace Horo Koné 1 , Konan Edmond Kouassi 2 , Affoué Tindo Sylvie Konan 1 , Kopoin Adouby 1 , Kouassi Benjamin Yao 1 1 Laboratoire des Procédés Industriels, de Synthèse de l’Environnement et des Energies Nouvelles (LAPISEN); Institut National Polytechnique Houphouët-Boigny, BP 1313 Yamoussoukro, Côte d’Ivoire 2 Laboratoire de Thermodynamique et de Physico-Chimie du Milieu (LTPCM), UFR-SFA, Université Nangui-Abrogoua, 02 BP 801 Abidjan 01, Cote d’Ivoire Received: 11 Oct 2020; Received in revised form: 06 Nov 2020; Accepted: 09 Nov 2020; Available online: 11 Nov 2020 ©2020 The Author(s). Published by Infogain Publication. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Abstract— The present study was initiated to help the simple and less expensive regeneration of activated carbons after saturation in rural area. In order to determine a regeneration time and the number of regeneration cycles, an adsorption test was necessary. Thus, 3h and 4 cycles of carbon regeneration are obtained after evaluation of the performance, percentage and adsorption capacity after each cycle. Regeneration percentages of 71.29, 54.05, 40.40, 28.06 % and 72.6, 69.84, 64.33, 34.98 %for respective concentrations of 30± 1.2 mg/L and 55 ± 1.6 mg/L are observed. Also, the performances of activated carbon 8.5, 10, 12, 20 g/L and capacities 24.04, 19.93, 14.9 and 10.35mg/g 35.7, 34.12, 31.43 and 17.09 mg/g respectively for dry season and rainy season were necessary to fix the number of cycles. The artisanal furnace with its ease of installation and its maximum temperature of 500±2°C is suitable for the regeneration of saturated activated carbon. Keywords— Regeneration, saturated activated carbon, artisanal furnace. I. INTRODUCTION Sustainable development necessarily involves recycling everything we use in order to guarantee the life for future generations. It is in this perspective that researchers have taken an interest in the regeneration of activated carbon in order to protect what the forerunners used in their productions. Several regeneration methods are available. It can be extractive using a volatile organic solvent [1], a fluid such as CO2 [2] or concentrated solutions of surfactants [3], to extract the pollutants from the activated carbon. However, its implementation remains costly even if this opinion is not unanimous. Indeed, some estimates consider it much cheaper than thermal regeneration [4,5]. Regeneration can be done in the same way by vapour desorption with the use of temperatures between 105 and 140 °C [6] to just shift the adsorption equilibrium. Like the first mentioned, it is limited for activated carbons having adsorbed volatile compounds. In addition to the two methods, thermal regeneration, which is the most common method, perfectly regenerates the activated carbon [7]. [8] reported percentages of 92-95% and 96-98% regeneration for carbons regenerated at 500°C. In addition, this method leads to a mass loss of coal in the order of 7-10%, and can reduce the porosity of the adsorbent [9]. Also, certain bacteria and enzymes are involved in the regeneration of activated carbons. In this way, bacteria or micro-organisms that can degrade the pollutant are brought into contact with the carbon [5]. This method is limited in the presence of poorly biodegradable pollutants or when concentration levels reach the inhibition or toxicity threshold [10]. Electrolytes can be used for electrochemical regeneration. [11] and [12] have used NaCl, Na2SO4 or NaHCO3 as electrolytes, respectively. [13] in using the electrochemical route, have reported a regeneration percentage ranging from 70 to 90%