Faculty of Engineering

DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING THERMODYNAMICS III
THCE301
Assignment

ACTIVATED CHARCOAL ADSORPTION OF ACETIC ACID

DUE DATE 26 September 2023

EXAMINER MRS N. NDLOVU
MODERATOR MR N. NKOSI
TIME 12:00pm

Student name Sibiya S.P

Student number 21902448

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 Acknowledgements

I want to show my gratitude to Mrs. Ndlovu, my lecturer, who has the attitude and knowledge
of a genius. He continuously and successfully instills a sense of adventure in terms of
professionalism and excitement in terms of teaching. Without his direction, I could not have
completed this task. He should also be commended for sending interim remarks via Microsoft
Teams, which contained a thorough explanation of the task as well as technical insights that
implied an explanation of the steps and inquiries required to complete this study. They were
essential in making sure the assignment was up to par and satisfied the Graduate Attribute
(GA) Independent Learning Capability criteria.
Yours Sincerely
Sibiya S.P

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Declaration
Mangosuthu University of Technology
Department of Chemical Engineering
Assignment/Report
Date:26/09/23
Module Code: Credits:THCE311
Module Title:Thermodynamics III

Declaration (Individual)

I (name)...Sibiya S.P..................................................................Student
number.....21902448........................................

Declare that:
i. The information reported in this report/assignment /document, except where otherwise
indicated, is my
original work.
ii. This report/assignment/document has not been submitted for any degree or examination at
any other
university.
iii. This report/assignment/document does not contain other persons’ data, pictures, graphs or
other information,
unless specifically acknowledged as being sourced from other persons.
iv. This report/assignment/document does not contain other persons’ writing, unless
specifically acknowledged
as being sourced from other researchers/ students/persons. Where other written sources have
been quoted,
then:
(a) Their words have been re-written but the general information attributed to them has been
referenced.
(b) Where their exact words have been used, their writing has been placed inside quotation
marks, and
referenced.
v. This report/assignment/document does not contain text, graphics or tables copied and
pasted from internet,
unless specifically acknowledged, and the source being detailed in the
report/document/assignment and in
the references sections.
vi. I have checked the work to ensure that there are no instances of plagiarism in it.

The Oxford Dictionary definition of plagiarism is “The practice of taking someone else’s
work or ideas and passing
them off as one’s own.”
This implies:
• Turning in someone else's work as your own
• Copying words or ideas or diagrams from someone else (including books, articles, etc.)
without giving
them credit

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• Failing to put a quotation in quotation marks or highlighting in italics
• Giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation
• Changing words but copying the sentence structure of a source without giving them credit
I hereby declare that I understand the meaning of plagiarism and recognize that submission of
plagiarized work for
assessment is an offense that may result in disciplinary action being taken against me.

............XX............. ......26/09/23..........................
Signature Date

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgements…………………………………………………..2
Declaration form…………………………………………………………………………………….3-4
Part A
Introduction to adsorption process…………………………………………………………………….. 6
Contact time…………………………………………………………………………………………….7
Influence of initial concentration and temperature……………………………………………………. 8
Effect of pH……………………………………………………………………………………………. 9
Part B
Summary……………………………………………………………………………………………....10
Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………11
Calculations……………………………………………………………………………………………12
Discussion……………………………………………………………………………………………..
Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………………..
Appendix……………………………………………………………………………………………….
References………………………………………………………………………………………………

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PART A

Introduction to adsorption process

Adsorption is the process in which decolorizing ionic species, atomic species, and molecular
species of one substance are gathered together at the surface of another substance. Adsorption
has the following components:

● Adsorbate – the substance that gets adsorbed on any surface.

● Adsorbent – The substance on the surface of which adsorption takes place.

● Desorption – The removal of the adsorbed substance from the surface.

● Sorption – The process in which adsorption and absorption take place at the same
time.
● Occlusion – the adsorption of gases on the surface of the metal.

Adsorption has the following importance:

● The presence of adsorptive surfaces in adsorption causes a number of chemical

processes to accelerate. For example, when oxygen and hydrogen are adsorbed on the
surface of platinum black, they mix very quickly with other gases at room
temperature.
● Adsorption is influenced by the surface, which helps in adsorption and encourages the
interaction of enzymes with substances. The reaction products that result from this
combination are to blame.
● Adsorption on the membranes of any cell stimulates a variety of important chemical
processes, it also influences surface tension and cell consistency.
● Medications and poisons that have been adsorbed on the surface of a cell exhibit all of
their effects from the same area.
It is very important to learn/study about adsorption because it is useful for evaluating the
physical and chemical properties of materials that are critical for process or reaction
performance. It has low cost, it is a clean technique, and it is highly selective.
There are factors that affect adsorption, such as:
- Temperature.
- Nature of adsorbent.
- Surface area of adsorbent.
- Pressure.
- Activation of solid adsorbent.
There are two varieties of adsorption, specifically:

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 1.Physical adsorption occurs when an adsorbate is retained on a surface by weak
forces like the van der Waals force, as in the case of water adhering to silica gel or
gases adhering to animal charcoal.

2.Chemical adsorption occurs when the adsorbate is retained to the surface by a

powerful chemical connection, as in: Iron rusting

Figure 1: Adsorption process overview.

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Contact Time

The analysis of acetic acid adsorption on powdered activated carbon naturally entails the
measurement of contact time, duration that corresponds to the equilibrium or saturation
condition of the support or substrate. In this instance, a straightforward "batch method" was
used in the experiment, which involved separately contacting 10 g/l of powdered activated
carbon with 0.2 mol/l of acetic acid. The residual amounts of this substrate in samples taken
at different reaction times will be determined by analysis using the chemical dosing method.
Thus, the establishment of adsorption isotherms, which are necessary for determining the
maximum adsorption capacity and the kind of adsorption that would occur in mono or
multilayer, was made possible by the calculation of equilibrium time.

Figure1. Influence of contact time on adsorption of acetic acid on activated carbon

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Influence of Initial concentration and temperature

The examination of Figure 2 shows the influence of parameters such as the initial
concentration of the adsorption capacity of the organic molecule (the mass of the support
being fixed). We find that it grows along with increasing the initial concentration.

However, the temperature findings from the experiments indicate a high retention for 25 °C,
demonstrating that this setting will severely affect the process by contributing a lot of energy,
increasing the repulsive forces concentrated at the interfaces of the liquid and solid
environment. Because of this, regardless of their affinity for this medium, it is interesting to
note that the contribution of heating plays a contrary role in the kinetics of retention of the
organic molecule. As a result, the retention process may occasionally be exothermic (H 0),
which might result in physisorption .

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Effect of pH
From figure 3, we find that the adsorption is highly dependent on pH. For activated
carbon, where we note:

∙ An increase of the amount adsorbed with increasing pH.

∙ The amount adsorbed increases to a maximum value at pH = 6,5.

∙ Adsorption and significantly better for both low acid pH< 5.

Figure3. Influence of pH on the adsorption of acetic acid on activated carbon.

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Part B
Summary
Among other things, purification, decolorization, deodorization, and general detoxification of
drinking water as well as the cleansing of air and chemicals, food, etc., are the principal uses
of activated carbon. The study concentrated on acetic acid adsorption on activated carbon.
The contact time was established using research on "batch methods" (4 hours to 16,5% in
removal efficiency and a concentration of 0,2 mol/l of substrate). However, depending on
how many organic molecules are present, this contact time may change. Temperature,
adsorbate concentration in solution, time, mass of adsorbent, and pH all had an impact on the
capacity and speed of acetic acid adsorption on this support. Furthermore, the kinetic models
developed by Langmuir and Freundlich adequately describe the adsorption of this chemical
as well.

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Introduction
The intensive use of organic molecules in everyday life has created problems in both the
environment and in food . It is important to mention that environmental pollution is due to
release of effluents from textile industries and in food; the toxicity is due to the incorporation
of several organic molecules. To counter this, several decontamination methods have been
developed, we quote as examples: adsorption , ion exchange , flocculation-coagulation etc. In
this work we present the results for adsorption on powdered activated carbon of acetic acid.
To do this, we determined sequentially the spectral study of the organic molecule, the contact
time, the influence of parameters such as temperature, concentration of adsorbate in solution,
pH and initial substrate concentration.

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13
Calculations

Freundlich equation
1
Y =kc n

1
=0,213
n
1
n=
0,213
n=4,69
log log k =0,120
k =1,32
1
q=1,32 c 4,69 ………………………………………………………………..…(1)

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Motivation for adsorbent change from activated charcoal to activated
carbon

Types of adsorbent Advantages Disadvantages

Activated charcoal ● takes in poisons in ● May result in
the stomach black stools
● Enhances renal ● Decrease the
function efficiency of
● decreases the drugs
efficiency of ● May results in
drugs dehydration
● Beneficial for skin ● Potential for
health allergies
● Reduces bloating ● Causes

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 and gas constipation

Activated carbon ● very high organic ● Non-selective

component eradication of
removal some compounds
capability ● Minerals or metal
● Product with low impurities may
cost and good leach into a liquid.
price/performance ● Dark dust
● Reuse; activated
carbon may
occasionally be
reactivated and
utilised.

Discussion and Conclusion

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References

● N. Daneshvar,D. Salari, and A.R.khataee , J.Photochem. Photobiol A: Chemistry.,

157 (2003) 111- 116.
● G.S. Gupta, G. Prasad and V.N. Singh, J. Environ. Sci. Health., 123 (1988), 205.
● [M. Mazet, O. Dussort, M. Roger and Dussoubes- Marmier, Revue des sciences de
l’eau., 3 (1990) 129.
● F. Perineau, Molinier J. and Gazet A., Wat Res., 17, 5 (1983) 559-67.
● Y. Yang, C. Ladisch and M. R. Ladisch, Enzym. Microb.Tech., 10 (1988) 632.
● Lisheng Z and Dobias B., Water treatment., 7 (1992) 221-232.
● S. Bekkouche, M. Bouhelassa, N. Hadj Salah and F. Z. Meg Helaoui, Desalination.,,
166 (2004) 355.
● E.Slejko, L and Dekker M., adsorption technologie; a step by step approach
solutions to process evaluation and application. Edited M. Dekker, New York (1985).
● B.Yaron, R. Calvet, et, R. Prost, Soil Pollution: processes and dynamics. Ed.
Springer-Verlag.New York, (1996) 315

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References
Elliot, J. R., 2012. Introductory Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics. 2nd ed. New York:
Pearson Education.
Felder, R. M., 2005. Elementary principles of chemical process. 3rd ed. New York: John
Wley & Sons.
Levan, m. D., 1996. Fundamentals of adsorption. 5th ed. Carlifonia: The springer.
T.D. Eastop, A. M., 2005. Applied Thermodynamics for Engineering Technologists. 5th ed.
New Delhi: Pearson.
Tien, C., 2018. Introduction to Adsorption (Basics, Analysis, and Applications). 1st ed.
Taiwan: Elsevier.
w. John Thomas, B. c., 1998. Adsorption Technology and design. 1st ed. Butterworth:
Elsevier.

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