Deactivation Model for the Adsorption of Trichloroethylene Vapor on an Activated Carbon Bed

Abstract

In this work, the adsorption of trichloroethylene (TCE) vapor was investigated in a laboratory-scale packed-bed adsorber by using granular activated carbon (GAC) at constant pressure (101.3 kPa). The packed-bed adsorber (PBA) was operated batchwise with the charges of GAC particles in the ranges of 2.5−10.0 g for obtaining TCE breakthrough curves. Experiments were carried out at different temperatures (25.6 ≤ T (°C) ≤ 35.8) and TCE feedstock concentrations (6350 ≤ C (ppm TCE) ≤ 7950) within the range of space velocity (5 000 ≤ ϑ (h-1) ≤ 17 000). The effects of TCE inlet concentration, operating temperature, and mass of adsorbent (mAds) on the TCE breakthrough curves were investigated, respectively. The deactivation model (DM) was tested for these curves by using the analogy between the adsorption of TCE and the deactivation of catalyst particles. Observed adsorption rate constants (kS) and first-order deactivation rate constants (kd) were obtained from the model. It was found that the deactivation model d...