Adsorption behaviour of polar solvent and water vapours on Sorbonorit B4 activated carbon

Abstract

In this work, the affinity of the heterogeneous Sorbonorit B4 (SB4) activated carbon toward methyl ethyl ketone (MEK), isopropyl alcohol (IPA), n-propyl alcohol (NPA) and isobutyl alcohol (IBA), and water vapours was examined. Adsorption equilibrium measurements demonstrate a higher adsorption capacity of water vapour than organic compounds at relative pressures above 0.4. The adsorption capacities of SB4 at the same vapor pressure followed the order: NPA> IPA> MEK> IBA. The Langmuir, Dubinin-Radushkevich, Dubinin-Astakhov, and Toth isotherm models were chosen to describe experimental results. Based on the multi-temperature isotherms, the values of the isosteric heat of adsorption were determined for various adsorbate loading. The results indicate a strong influence of VOC molecule structures and the surface heterogeneity of SB4 on the adsorption efficiency. For IPA-SB4 pair, the maximum temperature rise in a fixed-bed bed in the adsorption process and the energy requirement for regeneration were calculated and experimentally verified.

Keywords

• adsorption
• activated carbon
• isotherms
• isosteric heat
• column studies