Carbon adsorption of phenol from aqueous solutions in the presence of other adsorbates

Abstract

Experiments of fixed-bed carbon adsorption of phenol from aqueous solutions in the presence of three other adsorbates were made for the purposes of: (a) validating the multicomponent adsorption algorithm of Wang and Tien and (b) exploring the application of the method developed by Tien and coworkers in characterizing the adsorption affinity of background organics in fixed-bed calculations. The experimental results were found to give good agreement with predictions based on the Wang-Tien algorithm. Predictions made with the use of the characterization results were found to be marginally accurate. It is apparent that affinity characterization based on batch experiment results is not adequate if there is a strong competitive adsorption behavior among the various adsorbates.