Removal of Volatile Organic Compounds from Polluted Air in a Reverse Flow Reactor: An Experimental Study

An experimental study of the reverse flow reactor for the purification of contaminated air has been carried out. An experimental reactor with an inner diameter of 0.145 m has been constructed. It almost completely reached the goal of an adiabatically operating system. The influence of several operating parameters such as gas velocity, cycle period, chemical character, and concentration of the pollutants and reactor pressure are discussed. The reactor could be operated autothermally provided that the inlet concentrations were sufficiently high. If a mixture of contaminants is fed to the reactor, it might be necessary to increase the total hydrocarbon concentration to assure an autothermal process. Increasing the reactor pressure will hardly change the axial temperature profiles, if the mass flux is kept constant. Increasing the mass flow rate will lead to a higher plateau temperature. Not only the reactor behavior at fixed operating conditions, but also the response of the reactor toward variations in inlet conditions is reported.