Once granular or pelletised activated carbons have been used for purification or decolourisation applications, they can normally be recycled by thermal reactivation enabling activated carbon to be returned to customers for reuse. Reactivation is a highly skilled process that involves treating the spent carbon in a high-temperature reactivation furnace during which the organics that have been adsorbed on the carbon in its site operation are thermally destroyed. 

Reactivation is a sustainable, circular economy model that enables activated carbon to be repeatedly reused in the same or appropriate application. Combining reactivation with Chemviron’s high-quality activated carbons means that our customers can benefit from a cost-effective and sustainable purification solution.

In Belgium, Chemviron operates the world's largest activated carbon reactivation facility daily recycling large quantities of spent carbon for a diverse range of customers. With additional reactivation centres in the UK and Italy, Chemviron provides a complete service to our customers across Europe. 

Chemviron’s reactivation facilities provide a recycling service for clean water (potable) and food grade spent carbons, industrial chemical, wastewater, and remediation treatment spent carbons and industrial air treatment spent granular and pelletised carbons. 

Chemviron provides high levels of safety assurance for the clean water and food industry as our site in Feluy, Belgium, is ISO 22000 accredited for Food Safety Management. All our reactivation centres are designed to meet stringent air quality regulations making the use of activated carbon technology an environmentally friendly solution. Recycling activated carbon by thermal reactivation meets the environmental need to minimise waste, reduce CO₂ emissions and limit the use of the world’s resources.

Chemviron’s philosophy and priority is to recycle spent carbon to a reusable quality rather than replace it with fresh carbon, maximising the sustainability of our technology for our customers benefit. By providing high-performing activated carbons, combined with our mobile carbon filters and efficient reactivation service, Chemviron’s activated carbons can be recycled and repeatedly reused.

Based on our extensive reactivation experience, Chemviron has developed considerable in-house expertise on the required reactivation design and operating conditions to efficiently reactivate some of the more challenging spent activated carbons we see today. Chemviron owns and operates all our custom-designed carbon reactivation furnaces and has been reactivating granular and pelletised activated carbons in Europe since the 1970s. This has also enabled us to continually make process changes to improve our sustainability related to energy and water consumption and enhance the quality and effectiveness of our reactivation service.

In 2022, EcoVadis, an independent provider of business sustainability ratings, awarded Chemviron a Platinum medal which placed Chemviron in the top 1% of companies rated by EcoVadis in the industry. This award highlights how our solutions can benefit a customer’s environmental impact (i.e., by the recycling of activated carbon).

Chemviron is committed to providing a sustainable activated carbon service, helping reduce the CO₂ footprint of our customers as well as our own in the process.