Effect of Adsorption and Regeneration Temperature on Irreversible Adsorption of Organic Vapors on Beaded Activated Carbon

This paper investigates the effect of adsorption and regeneration temperature on the irreversible adsorption of a mixture of organic compounds typically emitted from automobile painting operations. Adsorption of the organic vapors mixture onto microporous beaded activated carbon (BAC) and regeneration of the saturated BAC were completed under different conditions. Results indicated that increasing the adsorption temperature from 25 to 35 or 45 °C increased heel buildup on BAC by about 30% irrespective of the regeneration temperature due to chemisorption. The adsorption capacity (for the first cycle) of the mixture onto the BAC at these three temperatures remained almost unchanged indicating chemisorption of some of these compounds onto the BAC. Increasing the regeneration temperature from 288 to 400 °C resulted in 61% reduction in the heel at all adsorption temperatures, possibly due to desorption of chemicals from narrow micropores. BET area and pore volumes of the BAC decreased proportionally to the cumulative heel. Pore size distribution and pore volume reduction confirmed that the heel was mainly built up in narrow micropores which can be occupied or blocked by some of the adsorbates.