The experimental study of activated carbon adsorption and microwave regeneration for the treatment of ester-containing wastewater from lithium-ion battery factory

Lithium-ion batteries became an important direction for the clean energy development,but the ester-containing wastewater produced from the battery factory was not suitable for direct biological treatment,for its high levels of COD and low biodegradability.The treatment of ester-containing wastewater by activated carbon adsorption method was investigated in this study,especially the effects of adsorption time,pH conditions and activated carbon dosage on the COD removal rate.The saturated activated carbon was regeneratedby microwaveafter adsorption.The effects of irradiation time and microwave power on the activated carbon regeneration were also studied.Under the optimum conditions of activated carbon dosage was 10g/L,adsorption time of60min,the wastewater COD removal rate was 69.5% and biodegradability of raw water was improvedfrom 0.05 to 0.25.Moreover,under the conditions of the microwave power was 420 W and the irradiation time was 6min,the activated carbon could be effectively regenerated,the regeneration efficiency was 98.0%,and only about 5.2% was lost in the regeneration process.The infrared spectra of activated carbon before and after regeneration showed thatthe surface functional groups of the activated carbonhad changed,thus improved the adsorption of pollutants.