Doctoral Dissertations

Keywords and Phrases

Abatement; Adsorption; Catalysis; Modeling; Simulation; Volatile Organic Compounds

Abstract

"Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are a group of useful organic chemicals but when emitted have contributed to air pollution. They affect human health, cause environmental degradation and contaminate our waters and soils, so they need to be controlled. When they exist in dilute concentrations, abatement becomes challenging, thus requiring advanced abatement methods, e.g., sequential adsorption desorption/thermal-catalytic oxidation process. The overall goal of this research was to abate dilute streams of VOCs via the process. The specific objectives were to 1) develop novel adsorbent/catalyst dual-function materials (DFMs) for the process, 2) improve the operability of a one-bed-one-column reactor configuration for the process, and 3) develop a numerical model of the process. Sol-gel and/or atomic layer deposition methods to synthesize these DFMs: TiO2-SiO2, ZrO2-SiO2 (Papers I & II); Ni/ZrO2-SiO2 (Papers III & V); TiO2/MIL-101(Cr), Pd/MIL-101(Cr) (Paper IV); Pt/SiO2, Pt/TiO2-SiO2, Pt/ZrO2-SiO2 (Paper VI); PtNi/ZrO2-SiO2; CeO2/TiO2-SiO2 and CeO2/ZrO2-SiO2. The performance of a one-bed-one-column configuration in a four-step TSAO cycle containing adsorption, preheating, desorption/thermal-catalytic oxidation, and cooling is heavily intertwined in the process operating conditions such as the step periods, adsorptive and regenerative feed conditions. Simulation of the developed model achieved significant time savings replicating 24 h cyclic experiment in 10 min with > 95% predictive accuracy of the experimental results. Furthermore, the model was utilized to optimize the process operating conditions leading to ~ 75% increased performance and reduce energy requirement by 95%"--Abstract, p. iv

Advisor(s)

Rezaei, Fateme

Committee Member(s)

Rownaghi, Ali A.
Ludlow, Douglas K.
Okoronkwo, Monday Uchenna
Ferdowsi, Mehdi

Department(s)

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

Degree Name

Ph. D. in Chemical Engineering

Publisher

Missouri University of Science and Technology

Publication Date

Summer 2021

Pagination

xviii, 291 pages

Note about bibliography

Includes_bibliographical_references_(pages 287-290)

Rights

© 2021 Busuyi Ojo Adebayo, All Rights Reserved

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

File Type

text

Language

English

Thesis Number

T 12144

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