SELECTION OF SORBENTS FOR GAS-PHASE ADSOR PTION

Selection of Sorbents for Gas Phase Adsorption. For gas phase adsorpti on processes it is almost always necessary to select a suitable sorben t by experiment, i.e. a sorbent that is suitable for adsorption as wel l as for desorption. Therefore sorbents from the group of activated ca rbons, adsorbent resins and zeolites have been tested and compared wit h each other under adsorption and desorption conditions. The sorbents have also been checked for reliable function. Operational disturbances are often caused by components such as water vapor or (irreversibly a dsorbing) high boiling components. In any case it is useful to select adsorbents which are not susceptible to interference by these componen ts. The co-adsorption of water vapor, undesirable in practice, normall y leads to a reduced adsorbent capacity. It is also shown that a singl e high boiling component, present in traces-in the gas, loads the adso rbent to the same extent as the pure-main component, so that there is hardly any capacity left for the main component. The range of investig ation was insufficient to draw up general rules for the different grou ps of sorbents referring to the points considered.