Abstract |
A major portion of the cost of using Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) as a water treatment unit process is associated with spent carbon replacement or reactivation. Regional reactivation or sharing a reactivation furnace among several users, has been proposed as a means of minimizing this cost. To test the concept, a field scale regional reactivation project was conducted by the Manchester, New Hampshire Water Works in conjunction with three other water utilities. Each of the three participating utilities provided 40,000 pounds of carbon to be transported to Manchester for fluidized bed reactivation. Data was gathered on reactivation operations and costs, and transportation costs and carbon losses. Results of the study demonstrated that regional reactivation can be cost effective as compared to virgin carbon replacement and in certain instances more cost effective than on-site reactivation. |