Abstract
The effect of an electric field on the breakthrough curve of a packed bed in equal valence ion exchange was studied under liquid phase diffusion control. The derived theoretical equations were solved numerically for various values of diffusivity ratio a and equilibrium constant K. The breakthrough curves of R-H-NaCl and R-Na-HCl systems were measured for various Re'' and bed heights. The results showed that the smaller the value of K is, the larger the effect of the electric field on the breakthrough curve is. Particularly, the effect is larger for a < 1 than a > 1. Further, when a>l and K>1, the diffusivity of the slower ion can be approximately used to predict the breakthrough curve, breakthrough time and Utilization, within an error of 30%.
