TRANSPORT AND SORPTION OF ORGANIC GASES IN ACTIVATED CARBON

The relationships among adsorption-desorption kinetics, equilibrium pa rtitioning, and fixed-column breakthrough curves are elucidated for ai rborne benzene and vinyl chloride on activated carbon grains and fiber s. An electrobalance is used to measure adsorption/desorption kinetics and to obtain equilibrium partitioning data; column experiments are c onducted to determine additional equilibrium partitioning data and to measure breakthrough curves. A porous sphere/cylinder intragrain diffu sion model, coupled with a Freundlich isotherm to describe equilibrium partitioning, conforms closely to the experimental kinetic data for b oth adsorption and desorption. In addition, it is shown that the adsor ption isotherm may be accurately predicted based on the asymmetry betw een adsorption and desorption rates measured in a single kinetic exper iment. The parameters extracted from the kinetic experiment, when comb ined with the appropriate transport equations, can be used to accurate ly forecast column breakthrough curves.