ADSORPTION

FLUID SOLID
SYSTEMS
1. Mode of Operations
 What is Adsorption?
This is a mass-transfer process in which the gas is bonded to a
porous solid. It is a surface phenomenon. The gas with
contaminates (the adsorbate) penetrates into the pores of the
solid (the adsorbent) but not into the lattice itself. The bond may
be physical or chemical
.
Adsorption can be physical or chemical

• In physical Adsorption , the adsorbate molecules (the contaminate) adhere to

the adsorbent materials in a physical bonding force referred to as “van der
Waals forces”, the gaseous material condenses upon the surface of the
adsorbent followed by the evolution of heat, desorption can occur at high
temperatures and low pressure

• In chemical adsorption, an attachment is created by a chemical bond

between the adsorbate and adsorbent. This bond is referred to as
“chemisorption.” Chemisorption usually occurs at elevated temperatures
when energy is necessary to break chemical bonds.
 Adsorption Stages
Adsorption on a solid adsorbent takes place in several stages as ;
1. External Diffusion
This refers to the mass transfer by diffusion of the adsorbate molecules from the bulk phase
of the fluid (gas) through a stagnant boundary layer , surrounding each adsorbent particle to
the external surface of the porous solid.

2. Internal Diffusion
This is the transfer of adsorbate to the interior of the particle by migration of the adsorbate
molecule from the relative limited external surface to the inner surface of the pores within
each particle of the adsorbent. This rate is governed by the diffusion of adsorbate molecules
through the pores of the particle

3. The actual Adsorption process

The adsorbate molecules moving in the pores are adsorbed from the vapor phase onto the
solid phase, this process is considered relatively fast compared to the first two.
 Adsorption systems
There are two main types of adsorption systems; fixed bed or continuous. Fixed bed or
packed bed systems are quite simple devices.

An example flow diagram is shown in fig . In this system, the contaminated gas enters
the fixed bed vessel at the side. The adsorbent material (consider this to be activated
carbon) is contained in a packed bed arrangement that allows for as much exposed
surface area as possible. The polluted air enters the activated carbon packing and works
towards the centre, where there is an exhaust distributor. The exhausted air exits the fixed
bed adsorber clean of pollutants or contaminates.
2. Advantages and
Disadvantages
of adsorbtion
ADVANTAGES

• Economic
• Adsorbers can handle varying flow rates
• Adsorbers can handle varying concentrations of organic compounds
• Can make use of spent or used material like fly ash or bottom ash
• Ease of operation
• Works on a range of impurities
• Space saving

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DISADVANTAGES

• formation of a secondary waste, such as the spent adsorbent,

• unusable recovered organic compounds, and organics in the waste water if steam is used for regeneration.
• Secondary waste may require off-site treatment or specialist disposal.
• Can be very temperature sensitive
• Needs constant attention

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3. ADSORBERS DESIGN
ASPECT
 DESIGN PARAMETERS
The design of an adsorber for gas involve choosing

 Adsorbent.

 The particle size of the adsorbent.

 Selecting the appropriate velocity to get the bed area.

 The bed length for a given cycle time or calculating the

breakthrough time for a chosen length.
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 1.Selectivity

Selectivity is the amount of specificity a sorbent

has in the material that it can capture

A very unselective sorbent captures many

substances.

A selective sorbent only removes specific ones .

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  Surface area of adsorbent is the amount of material
a sorbent has available for contact and determine
the capacity of the material can capture, the
capture rate of the sorbent and the retention rate
of the substance within the sorbent.

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  Regeneration is the ability of a sorbent to be
reused after capturing to its capacity.

 Many desiccants can be heat treated in order to

regenerate the material

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 4. The nature of the stream to be treated (e.g. aqueous, liquid or stack gas).
5. Characteristics of the adsorbates to be removed and the degree of removal required.

Other factors to consider when choosing an adsorbent

 Chemical inertness
 Ease of application
 Cost
 Availability
 Required throughput

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 The diameter of the column

The diameter of the column is calculated from the required throughput and
the chosen superficial velocity.

Usually typical superficial velocity of a gas is 0.15m/s to 0.45m/s.

Cross Sectional Area (A) =

Column diameter D =

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 The bed thickness/ packed height

The bed thickness is calculated by the following equation

Bed thickness(tb)=

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 The length of the vessel
 The length of the vessel is calculated as follows

L= ()2

where
D = vessel diameter (ft)
L = vessel length (ft)
Vb = bed superficial velocity (ft/min)
Ma= adsorbent requirement per vessel (lbs)
Q = volumetric flow rate per adsorbing vessel
•
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 Calculation of breakthrough time for a chosen length

Breakthrough happens when an adsorption column is saturated.

A breakthrough curve shows the concentration of the adsorbate of interest in
the effluent leaving the column.
It is usually an S shape curve.
When the slope stays constant, the column saturation is achieved.
The longer breakthrough time imply better adsorption capacity.
Breakthrough time is also known as the service time.
The break point is often taken as a relative concentration of 0.05 to 0.10

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 Breakthrough Curve

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 The break time
Tb =

Where

Wb is the solute adsorbed up to breakpoint and is given by the area above the curve up to

=0.05 multiplied by solute feed rate (FA).

Wsat is the total solute that is suppose to be adsorbed and is given by the area above the curve

multiplied by FA

b is the bulky density of the bed.

L is the length of the bed.

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4. Operational Problems
Using Activated carbon adsorption example

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• Dust accumulates and can lead to blockages, consistent cleaning
needs to be done.
• Components being removed mix and may lead to early malfunction
• The equipment is not suitable for wet flue gases (less critical for
impregnated activated carbon)
• Risk of spontaneous combustion in the bed (ketones,
turpentines…)
• Polymerization risk for unsaturated hydrocarbons on the activated
carbon (exothermal and causes blockages)
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• Can trap only those chemicals that are attracted towards carbon.
Hence, they cannot eliminate pollutants like sodium, nitrates,
fluorides, and other heavy metals.
• Short service life as the filters stop working after the bonding sites
get filled with contaminants. Hence, you have to replace them
regularly.
• They cannot trap specific pathogenic bacteria. Hence, you need to
use a combination of Activated Carbon and Nano Silver filters to
cater to such issues.

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• these filters are not widely used in households because they do not
capture allergens, dust and other micro organisms, so they are not
effective for those who suffer allergies, asthma and other
respiratory illnesses

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5. Adsorption Case Study
• The Air Treatment Unit (ATU) technologies described in this
Engineering Issue Paper is applied when indoor air VOC
concentrations exceed specified limits, including sites where VOCs are
entering a building from a subsurface source, commonly known as
vapor intrusion.
• The technology can also be applied when the VOCs are entering the
building from groundwater, for example in sumps.
• VOCs are one group of chemicals that can easily become gases, or
chemical vapors, which can migrate through soil and enter buildings.
• Well-known examples of VOCs are petroleum products (e.g. gasoline
or diesel fuel), dry cleaning solvents (e.g. perchloroethylene) and
industrial degreasers (e.g. trichloroethylene).

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• One of the more common applications of VOC ATUs is when a
temporary reduction of indoor air VOC concentrations is needed
while a longer-term solution is put in place.
• One example of this situation would be using an ATU while a
subslab depressurization mitigation system is installed at a VI site
(and ultimately soil and groundwater remediation is implemented to
eliminate the need for indoor air mitigation).
• In these cases, portable ATUs can be deployed for weeks or months
while the longer-term solution is designed, permitted, and
constructed.
• Similarly, VOC ATUs can be used to reduce indoor air VOC
concentrations while possible sources of the VOCs of concern are
investigated.
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Adsorption principles
• Two types of adsorption occur in ATUs: physisorption and chemisorption. In
physisorption, compounds collect on the sorbent surface due to van der
Waals forces and other relatively weak binding forces and remain there until
they are desorbed.
• Both the sorbed compound and the sorbing surface remain the same—no
irreversible chemical changes occur.
• Physisorption systems can have single use or regenerable sorbents.
Desorption (i.e., release of the chemical) can be intentional in a regeneration
process or may occur because of significant changes in conditions (such as
temperature, humidity, or chemicals adsorbed) that prevailed after the
original adsorption.
• In chemisorption, the adsorbed compound collects on the surface but reacts
with the surface irreversibly so that desorption is not possible.
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• This permanently removes the contaminant from the airstream but also
consumes the surface of the sorbent (American Society of Heating,
Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers [ASHRAE], 1994).
• Sorption occurs at a molecular level when VOC molecules contact the
sorbent surface due to Brownian (or random) motion, as energetic
molecules move from a higher concentration in the air near the sorbents to
the relatively low concentration air in the boundary layer at the surface of
the sorbent.
• Advective currents (i.e., airflow), whether natural or fan induced, bring
contaminants into range where this Brownian motion can become
important. Effective sorbents tend to have large surface areas due to the
presence of micropores.
• According to ASHRAE (1994), “one gram of 1.5 mm diameter carbon spheres
would have an external surface area of about 0.01 m2, which is only a small
fraction of the total adsorption surface of 1,000 to 1,500 m2/g.”
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• The most common sorbent in use for air cleaning is granular activated carbon (GAC).
• For VOCs, including the chlorinated hydrocarbons most frequently encountered at VI sites,
carbon acts as a physisorbent.
• When the concentration of a compound in the air goes down, the sorbed contaminant may
desorb due to the concentration gradient driving force.
• Carbon sorbents are usually placed in beds, or layers, where small granules of carbon are
held in place in a confined space with mesh to allow airflow and contact with the sorbent
surface.
• Within these beds, the sorbents are often described by their particle size. The particle size is
often expressed in “mesh” units that refer to the sieves that pass or retain a given particle
size.
• For example, in 8×30 mesh GAC, at least 96% of the granules by weight are larger than 30
mesh (0.60 mm) and at least 85% of the granules by weight are smaller than 8 mesh (2.36
mm). Other GAC sizes include 12×40 US mesh (0.42 to 1.70 mm) and 6×16 US mesh (1.18
to 3.35 mm).

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• For a deep enough bed of carbon with a constant VOC input, the
downstream concentrations, or breakthrough, has a standard-shaped
curve starting at 0% penetration, or entry into the macro- and micro–
pores in the sorbent material and rising to 100% if exposed long enough.
• Figure 2 on the next slide shows the typical slow initial breakthrough,
followed by an increasing rate, then an asymptotic approach to equal the
upstream concentration.
• Adsorption is followed by desorption when the inflow of the
contaminant is eliminated while air is still flowing.
• Performance measures include efficiency at a specific time, capacity
(how much VOC mass is removed) at a specific point, and breakthrough
time (how long it takes to reach, for example, 50% of the upstream
concentration marked in Figure 2).

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Figure 2. Typical sorbent breakthrough curve for carbon or other solid sorbents

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ThankYou

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