The effective separation of desacetyl cephalosporin C(DCPC) from cephalosporin C(CPC) and other impurities was achieved by using the powdery activated carbon as an adsorbent to deal with the waste drainage from the current process for CPC production.By eluting the carbon cake with ethanol-water system or isopropanol-water system

a DCPC solution of 80% purity was obtained. The yield for ethanol-water system was 75%

and that for isopropanol-water system could reach 80%.The experiments showed that separation was not good by eluting the adsorbent with 15% ethanol solution or 15% isopropanol solution

and 10% ethanol solution or 10% isopropanol solution was weak in elution.The good results of elution and separation were obtained by using 12%—13% ethanol solution or 12%—13% isopropanol solution;furthermore

13% isopropanol solution had a better effect than 13% ethanol solution.