Adsorption in Columns Packed with Porous Adsorbent Particles Having Partially Fractal Structures

Abstract

A mathematical model is constructed and solved that could describe the dynamic behavior of the adsorption of a solute of interest in single and stratified columns packed with partially fractal porous adsorbent particles. The results show that a stratified column bed whose length is the same as that of a single column bed, provides larger breakthrough times and a higher dynamic utilization of the adsorptive capacity of the particles than those obtained from the single column bed, and the superior performance of the stratified bed becomes especially more important when the superficial velocity of the flowing fluid stream in the column is increased to accommodate increases in the system throughput. This occurs because the stratified column bed provides larger average external and intraparticle mass transfer and adsorption rates per unit length of packed column. It is also shown that increases in the total number of recursions of the fractal and the ratio of the radii between larger and smaller microspheres that make up the partially fractal particles, increase the intraparticle mass transfer and adsorption rates and lead to larger breakthrough times and dynamic utilization of the adsorptive capacity of the particles. The results of this work indicate that highly efficient adsorption separations could be realized through the use of a stratified column comprised from a practically reasonable number of sections packed with partially fractal porous adsorbent particles having reasonably large (i) total number of recursions of the fractal and (ii) ratio of the radii between larger and smaller microspheres from which the partially fractal particles are made from. It is important to mention here that the physical concepts and modeling approaches presented in this work could be, after a few modifications of the model, applied in studying the dynamic behavior of chemical catalysis and biocatalysis in reactor beds packed with partially fractal porous catalyst particles.

Department(s)

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

Keywords and Phrases

Adsorption Separation; Adsorptive Capacity; Breakthrough Time; Chemical Catalysis; Fractal Structures; Porous Structures; Stratified Column Beds; Superficial Velocity; Adsorption; Chemical Modification; Mass Transfer; Mathematical Models; Microspheres; Models; Packed Beds; Fractals; Adsorbent; Biocatalysis; Catalysis; Porosity; Radius; Separation Technique; Solute; Stratification; Velocity; Adsorbent Particles with a Partially Fractal Porous Structure; Dynamic Adsorptive Capacity; Varying Throughput

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

1615-9306; 1615-9314

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2013 Wiley-Blackwell, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Jun 2013

PubMed ID

23936911

Link to Full Text

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