抄録
Ethyl acetate (EA), an important solvent used in petrochemical and polymer industries, is one of the toxic volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Though the toxicity of EA may not be so alarming, still it is also an environmental necessity to enquire after the techniques and processes for the removal or recovery of EA from air. Activated carbon is a good adsorbent because of its large surface area, which is result of its vast infrastructure of pores. The successful application of adsorption as an industrial separation technology requires intensive study of phenomena such as equilibria and the kinetics of adsorption, coupled with mathematical model that correctly describes the dynamics of fixed bed columns. In this paper adsorption equilibrium of EA has been studied experimentally in activated carbon at three different temperatures 30 °C, 45 °C, & 55 °C. The experimental equilibrium data were fitted with Freundlich and Langmuir isotherm models to obtain the suitability of the models, model parameters, saturation capacity, and heat of adsorption. Overall effective mass transfer coefficient of ethyl acetate adsorption on activated carbon has been evaluated using Uptake curve method. Results showed that the isotherms are of Brunauer type-I and are well fitted with Langmuir isotherm model. The overall effective mass transfer coefficient, k values don't show any distinct effect of flow rate on it leading to the conclusion that the pore diffusion is predominant. Heat of adsorption values both by van't Hoff equation and Clausius - Clapeyron equation are in the order of 105 J/kg and overall effective mass transfer coefficient is in the order of 10-4 s -1.
