Low concentration volatile organic pollutants removal in combined adsorber-desorber-catalytic reactor system

The removal of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from numerous emission sources is of crucial importance due to more rigorous demands on air quality. Different technologies can be used to treat the VOCs from effluent gases: absorption, physical adsorption, open flame combustion, thermal and catalytic incineration. Their appropriateness for the specific process depends on several factors such as efficiency, energy consumption, secondary pollution, capital investments etc. The distinctive features of the catalytic combustion are high efficiency and selectivity toward be?nign products, low energy consumption and absence of secondary polluti?on. The supported noble catalysts are widely used for catalytic incineration due to their low ignition temperatures and high thermal and chemical stability. In our combined system adsorption and desorption are applied in the spouted bed with draft tube (SBDT) unit. The annular zone, loaded with sorbent, was divided in adsorption and desorption section. Draft tube enabled sorbent recirculation between sections. Combustion of desorbed gases to CO2 and water vapor are realized in additive catalytic reactor. This integrated device provided low concentrations VOCs removal with reduced energy consumption. Experiments were conducted on a pilot unit of 220 m3/h nominal capacity. The sorbent was activated carbon, type K81/B - Trayal Corporation, Krusevac. A sphere shaped commercial Pt/Al2O3 catalyst with "egg-shell" macro-distribution was used for the investigation of xylene deep oxidation. Within this paper the investigations of removal of xylene vapors, a typical pollutant in production of liquid pesticides, in combined adsorber/desorber/catalytic reactor system is presented. U okviru ovog rada izvrsena su ispitivanja adsorpcije ksilola, kao Predstavnika volatilnih organskih jedinjenja, na aktivnom uglju. Ispitivanja su vrsena u cilju dobijanja parametara za odredjivanje efikasnosti adsorpcije realne smese polutanata. Takodje, ispitivana je desorpcija ksilola u sirokom temperaturnom intervalu u cilju odredjivanja optimalne temperature desorpcije i efikasnost katalitickog sagorevanja desorbovanog ksilola na katalizatoru. Ova ispitivanja bila su osnov za razvoj integrisanog sistema adsorber-desorber-kataliticki reaktor za uklanjanje malih koncentracija ksilola. Ispitivanja su obuhvatila tretiranje gasne smese vazduh-ksilol, koja je po svom sastavu slicna otpadnim gasovima iz pogona za proizvodnju tecnih pesticida. Eksperimenti su i