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Feasibility Study for Reuse of Activated Carbon for the Capture of Methyl Bromide Used for Decontamination
Citation:
McDonald, S. AND J. Wood. Feasibility Study for Reuse of Activated Carbon for the Capture of Methyl Bromide Used for Decontamination. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-19/023, 2019.
Impact/Purpose:
Methyl bromide (MeBr) fumigation has been shown to be effective in decontaminating buildings contaminated with Bacillus anthracis (Ba) spores. Previous laboratory and field tests have shown that activated carbon (AC) is effective in capturing the MeBr following such fumigation, to prevent its release to the atmosphere. In the event of a large urban Ba spore release, large quantities of MeBr would be needed and hence potentially large quantities of AC as well. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of processing the AC to allow it to be reused for further capture of MeBr.
Description:
In the present study, we quantified how well an activated carbon (AC) sample maintained its adsorption capacity for Methyl bromide (MeBr) over several adsorption/desorption cycles, using three different gas conditions. During the adsorption phase, the AC was exposed to a feed gas of 5.3% MeBr until saturation of the AC sample was achieved. Subsequently, the MeBr was desorbed from the saturated AC by exposing the carbon bed to dry or ambient air heated to 100 °C.