MODELING OF ION-EXCHANGE PERFORMANCE IN A FIXED RADIAL FLOW ANNULAR BED

A model is developed to simulate ion exchange performance within a fix ed, annular ion exchange bed. In the bed the injected solution flows r adially from the inlet located at the annular bed's axis to the outlet located at the bed's periphery. The model considers radial dispersion to be a function of the solution velocity and assumes instantaneous p ointwise equilibrium exists throughout the bed between the ions in the solution and the exchanger phases. Experiments to validate the model are conducted using a wedge-shaped radial ion exchange bed having 30 d egrees of are and containing commercially-available ion exchange resin . The performance of the radial bed is studied for both the exhaustion and regeneration cycles for the Na+-H+ and Ca2+-H+ cation binary syst ems. The predictions made by the radial ion exchange performance model are found to be in close agreement with the experimental observations for the systems studied.