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The fluid is passed through the bed and the solid particles adsorb components
from the fluid.
When the bed is almost saturated, the flow in this bed is stopped and the bed
is regenerated thermally or by other methods, so desorption occurs.
The adsorbed material (adsorbate) is thus recovered and the solid adsorbent is
ready for another cycle of adsorption.
BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus
Introduction to Adsorption Processes
Separations include paraffins from aromatics and fructose from glucose using
zeolites.
Typically, the adsorbents are in the form of small pellets, beads, or granules
ranging from about 0.1 mm to 12 mm in size with the larger particles being
used in packed beds.
A particle of adsorbent has a very porous structure with many fine pores and
pore volumes up to 50% of total particle volume.
The adsorption often occurs as a monolayer on the surface of the fine pores.
Physical adsorption, or van der Waals adsorption, usually occurs between the
adsorbed molecules and the solid internal pore surface and is readily
reversible.
Then the solute diffuses inside the pore to the surface of the pore. Finally,
the solute is adsorbed on the surface.
There are a number of commercial adsorbents and some of the main ones
are. described below.
All are characterized by very large pore surface areas of 100 to over 2000
m2/g.
Activated carbon
This is a microcrystalline material made by thermal decomposition of wood,
vegetable shells, coal, etc., and has surface areas of 300 to 1200 m2/g with
average pore diameters of 10 to 60 A. Organics are generally adsorbed by
activated carbon.
Silica gel
This adsorbent is made by acid treatment of sodium silicate solution and
then dried. It has a surface area of 600 to 800 m2/g and average pore
diameters of 20 to 50 A. It is primarily used to dehydrate gases and liquids
and to fractionate hydrocarbons.
Activated alumina
To prepare this material, hydrated aluminum oxide is activated by heating to drive
off the water. It is used mainly. to dry gases and liquids. Surface areas range from
200 to 500 m2/g, with average pore diameters of 20 to 140 A.
q = Kc (12.1-1)
for many physical adsorption systems and is particularly useful for liquids.
q = Kc n (12.1-2)
Solution:
Plotting the data as 1/q versus 1/c, the results are not a straight - line
and do not follow the Langmuir equation (12.1-3).
A plot of log q versus log c in Fig. 12.1-2 gives a straight line and,
hence, follow the Freundlich isotherm Eq. (12.1-2). The slope n is
0.229 and the constant K is 0.199, to give
q = 0.199c0.229
Batch adsorption is often used to adsorb solutes from liquid solutions when
the quantities treated are small in amount, such as in the pharmaceutical
industry or other industries.
Also, the initial concentration of the solute adsorbed on the solid is qF and
The fluid to be treated is usually passed down through the packed bed at a
constant flow rate.
The situation is more complex than that for a simple stirred-tank batch
process which reaches equilibrium.
The overall dynamics of the system determines the efficiency of the process
rather than just the equilibrium considerations.
The concentrations of the solute in the fluid phase and of the solid adsorbent
phase change with time and also with position in the fixed bed as adsorption
proceeds.
At the inlet to the bed the solid is assumed to contain no solute at the start of
the process.
As the fluid first contacts the inlet of the bed, most of the mass transfer and
adsorption takes place here.
As the fluid passes through the bed, the concentration in this fluid drops very rapidly
with distance in the bed to zero way before the end of the bed is reached.
The concentration profile at the start at time t1 is shown in Fig. 12.3-1a, where the
concentration ratio c/co is plotted versus bed length.
After a short time, the solid near the entrance to the tower is almost saturated, and most
of the mass transfer and adsorption now takes place at a point slightly farther from the
inlet.
At a later time t2 the profile or mass-transfer zone where most of the concentration
change takes place has moved farther down the bed.
The concentration profiles shown are for the fluid phase. Concentration profiles for
the concentration of adsorbates on the solid would be similar.
The solid at the entrance would be nearly saturated and this concentration would
remain almost constant down to the mass-transfer zone, where it would drop off
rapidly to almost zero.
The dashed line for time t3 shows the concentration in the fluid phase in equilibrium
with the solid.
The difference in chemical potential is the driving force for mass transfer.
As seen in Fig. 12.3-1a, the major part of the adsorption at any time takes place in a
relatively narrow adsorption or mass-transfer zone.
As the solution continues to flow, this mass-transfer zone, which is S-shaped, moves
down the column.
At a given time t3 in Fig. 12.3-la when almost half of the bed is saturated with solute,
the outlet concentration is still approximately zero, as shown in Fig. 12.3-1b.
This outlet concentration remains near zero until the mass-transfer zone starts to
reach the tower outlet at time t4.
Then the outlet concentration starts to rise and at is the outlet concentration has
After the break-point time is reached, the concentration c rises very rapidly up to
point cd, which is the end of the breakthrough curve where the bed is judged
ineffective.
The break-point concentration represents the maximum that can be discarded and is
often taken as 0.01 to 0.05 for cb/co.
The value cd/co is taken as the point where cd is approximately equal to co.
For a narrow mass-transfer zone, the breakthrough curve is very steep and most of
the bed capacity is used at the break point. This makes efficient use of the adsorbent
and lowers energy costs for regeneration.
The mass-transfer zone width and shape depends on the adsorption isotherm, flow
rate, mass-transfer rate to the particles, and diffusion in the pores.
A number of theoretical methods have been published which predict the mass-
transfer zone and concentration profiles in the bed.
The predicted results may be inaccurate because of many uncertainties due to flow
patterns and correlations to predict diffusion and mass transfer.
Hence, experiments in laboratory scale are needed in order to scale up the results.
The ratio tu/ tt is the fraction of the total bed capacity or length
utilized up to the break point (C3, L 1, Ml).
Hence, for a total bed length of HT m, HB is the length of bed used
up to the break point,
HT = HUNB + HB (12.3-5)
This design procedure is widely used and its validity depends on the
conditions in the laboratory column being similar to those for the
full-scale unit.
BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus
Capacity of Column and Scale-Up
Design Method
(b) If the break-point time required for a new column is 6.0 h, what
is the new total length of the column required?
Solution: The data from Table 12.3-1 are plotted in Fig. 12.3-3. For
part (a), for c/co = 0.01, the break-point time is tb = 3.65 h from the
graph. The value of td is approximately 6.95 h. Graphically
integrating, the areas are A 1 = 3.65 h and A2 = 1.51 h.
BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus
Numerical