It was all systems go last week at our activated carbon reactivation facility in Immingham, Lincs, when the engineering team performed a quick replacement of one of our kiln tubes.
We operate two separate carbon regeneration facilities at Puragen Immingham, one for handling spent granular activated carbon from potable water applications (so-called ‘green list’ material) and the other for handling carbon from industrial purification applications such as biogas, wastewater, odour control and VOC abatement (‘amber list’ material).
Recycling spent carbon in this way, via our Regen-Sys® process, so that it can be re-used in customers’ purification systems, offers a considerable saving in terms of cost and environmental footprint, compared with the use of imported virgin activated carbon. Spent granular activated carbon and extruded pellets can generally be recycled via this process, provided it passes our Carbon Acceptance procedure.
The reactivation of industrial spent carbons in our ‘amber’ kiln can result in corrosive gases being generated, which leads to additional wear and tear on the kiln’s internals. We have sophisticated gas scrubbers in place to treat the off-gases from the process, and ensure full environmental protection and compliance, but the kiln itself requires regular assessments and maintenance to check for damage. On occasion, it requires a complete changeout of the main kiln tube and we always keep a spare tube on site to allow for changeouts at short notice. Despite being a significant engineering challenge, our Immingham team can achieve the changeout and have the kiln back up and running again within two days – an impressive achievement!
