BONE CHAR DECOLORISATION EFFICIENCY - A LABORATORY STUDY OVER 4 CONSECUTIVE CYCLES

Bone char decolorisation of syrup is still widely used in refining and a laboratory study has been made of its efficiency over time and over successive regeneration cycles. Refinery syrup mas run through a fixe d bed test column and the colour removal was determined at 420 nm over four cycles of four days each, The char was heated to 550 degrees C b etween cycles to reactivate it. The data were plotted in various ways as a function of time and compared with typical refinery decolorisatio n data. Presentations as cumulative units removed or cumulative % remo ved were approximately linear and provided a method of rapid quantitat ive comparison between different chars. Fresh char was the most effici ent and the 2nd, 3rd and 4th cycles all showed approximately the same colour removal capacity.