It is possible to regenerate silica gel by re-heating it, but we do NOT recommend this, for three main reasons:
With every heat-and-saturation cycle the crystal structure within the silica gel becomes more and more damaged (it’s just like photo-copying a photo-copy), and with every re-heating cycle the product’s quality decreases, and total adsorption capacity decreases.
In Europe and the USA, the cost of energy for heating the silica gel, is actually more than the cost of buying a brand new silica gel sachet. So it costs you more to regenerate these bags yourself.
In almost all cases, the temperature at which you need to heat the Silica Gel is higher than the burning temperature of the sachet or plastic housing that contains the Silica Gel. Therefore, you have a choice of: [a] heating the silica effectively and setting fire to the sachet/housing, or [b] not setting fire to the exterior sachet, and in doing so, not drying the silica beads to a level required to regenerate them.
For all of these reasons, we do NOT recommend re-generating your silica gel.
Note also that if you are using a standard white packet of white silica gel, then it’s not easy to tell when the silica has been saturated, and when it needs replacing. For this reason, we have developed a range of indicating silica gels, which clearly shows (via a colour change) when the silica has become saturated, and when you need to replace the sachet.