Abstract
The adsorption of benzene vapor, as a volatile organic component, from inert gas (N2) by activated carbon was studied experimentally in the isothermal fixed bed reactor at various operating conditions. The activated carbon used in this study had pistachio shell base with high surface area. To improve the adsorption capacity of VOC vapor, the activated carbon was chemically treated with H2SO4, HNO3, NaOH, and NH3 solutions. The saturated adsorption capacities of benzene on initial activated carbon and treated samples were measured and compared. The results showed that the activated carbon treated with nitric acid had higher adsorption capacity than others samples, 640 mg/g. In addition, a mathematical model for adsorption in a fixed bed reactor was proposed in this study. The model results had good agreement with experimental data. In order to demonstrate the effects of operating conditions on adsorption and breakthrough curve, the experimental tests and simulation runs were carried out at various gas flow rate, temperature, and benzene concentration. The results showed that with increase VOC concentration from 700 to 1000 ppm, the total time of adsorption was decreased from 25 to 21 h and breakthrough point appeared earlier.
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Abbreviations
- a :
-
external surface area per unit volume of the activated carbon, m2/m3
- a*:
-
total adsorption surface area per unit volume of the activated carbon, m2/m3
- C :
-
concentration, mol/m3
- C G :
-
concentration of the species in the gas bulk, mol/m3
- C p :
-
molar concentration of species inside the pores, mol/m3
- C s :
-
molar surface concentration of adsorbed species inside the pores, mol/m2
- De:
-
effective diffusivity inside pore, m2/s
- d p :
-
diameter of the fiber, m
- D k :
-
Knudsen diffusivity, m2/s
- D m :
-
molecular diffusivity, m2/s
- k m :
-
average mass film transfer coefficient around the adsorbent particle, m/s
- k a :
-
rate constant for adsorption, m/s
- k d :
-
rate constant for desorption, mol/s-m2
- M :
-
molecular weight of gas, g/mol
- Q :
-
volumetric flow rate of the gas, mL/min
- R p :
-
pore radius, m
- R e :
-
Reynolds number
- Sc:
-
Schmidt number
- Sh:
-
Sherwood number
- T :
-
temperature, K
- ε :
-
porosity of bed
- α :
-
porosity of carbon particle
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Maryam Mirzaie, Ali Reza talebizadeh, and Hasan Hashemipour. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Maryam Mirzaie, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Mirzaie, M., Talebizadeh, A.R. & Hashemipour, H. Mathematical modeling and experimental study of VOC adsorption by Pistachio shell–based activated carbon. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 3737–3747 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-10634-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-10634-1