Testing of Adsorbents for Removal of Volatile Organic Compounds from Exhaust Gases

Abstrakt

Removal of volatile organic compounds (VOC) using adsorption was investigated. Four organic compounds (acetone, toluene, decane and cyclohexanone) and eight commercial adsorbents were used for determination of adsorption isotherms. A flow laboratory apparatus working on gravimetric principle was used for the measurement of adsorption isotherms at 20 °C or 25 °C. Subsequently, thermal desorption for three adsorbents and two organic compounds was tested. Desorption processes were carried out by heating a saturated adsorbent in an electric oven. For evaluation of experimental data, the Langmuir and Dubinin adsorption theories were used. The highest adsorption capacities were obtained for activated carbon adsorbents produced by Silcarbon Co. Natural zeolites show very low adsorption capacities. The best desorption efficiency was observed for Envisorb B+.