Adsorption

Short and/or Brief question:

1. What is adsorption? How it is differs from absorption?
2. To remove the oil from water which process will be better, adsorption or absorption?
3. What are the factors influence the adsorption of gases or liquids on a metal surface?
4. Write down the criteria of a good adsorbent?
5. What are the limitations and assumption of BET, Freundlich and Langmuir isotherm?
6. On increasing temperature, adsorption increases continuously, justify the statement.
7. ‘Chemisorption is a multilayer phenomenon’, justify the statement.
8. Explain different types of adsorption and its characterization.
9. Explain the following: Adsorption Isotherm, Adsorbents and its features, Freundlich Adsorption
Isotherm, Langmuir adsorption Isotherm
10. Explain the mechanism and applications of Adsorption using Adsorbent.
11. Adsorbents of a small particle size are preferred for liquid separation compared to gas separation,
why?
12. What is the difference between BET and Langmuir model for calculating the specific surface
area?
13. Briefly describe the adsorption of a vapour from a gas fluidized bed.
14. How is breakthrough concentration defined for adsorption in a packed bed?
15. Qualitatively, discuss the effects of the following on the thickness of the MTZ.
(i) Particle size and porosity
(ii) Feed stream velocity
(iii) Axial dispersion of the solute
(iv) Rate of adsorption
16. Adsorption capacity of a regenerated bed compared to the fresh bed is generally remain same?
17. How does the depth of the mass transfer zone (MTZ) change with increasing selectivity
coefficient KAB for mono-monovalent ion exchange?
18. What is zeolite? How the natural alumina differs from activated alumina?
19. Write short note on capillary condensation of gases or liquids on solid?
20. What is breakthrough?
21. How to generate the bed?
22. Write a short note on separation factor?
Problems:
1. Calculate the adsorption of a dye on activated carbon at 25oC, where k = 0.025, n = 0.5 and C =
0.04.
2. For an adsorbant-adsorbate system obeying the Langmuir adsorption isotherm, b = 0.48 bar-1 and
p = 0.16 bar-1. At what pressure will 50% of the surface be covered?
3. Adsorption of a pure gas A on activated carbon follows the Langmuir isotherm.
q = 64p/ (1+1.53p) [p in kPa and q in mmol/g]

If the molecular weight of A is 65, what is the maximum quantity of gas (in kg adsorbate per kg
carbon) that can be adsorbed?

4. Table 1 below lists equilibrium adsorption data for the adsorption of serum protein fibrinogen
onto a medical-grade stainless steel surface (316LVM) at 303 K. Your task is to use the Langmuir
isotherm to describe this interaction, and subsequently to calculate the Gibbs energy of
adsorption.

Concentration, g/L 0.14 0.16 0.20 0.25 0.30 0.35 0.40 0.45 0.50 0.55
2
q, mg/m 1.97 1.96 1.97 2.04 2.05 2.16 2.16 2.18 2.22 2.23

5. Adsorption of CO2 on BPL activated carbon at 30°C can be fitted by the Toth isotherm.
q = 14.7p/(11.2+p0.426)2.36 [p in kPa and q in mmol/g]
i) Calculate the Henry’s law constant for this system applicable at low pressure of CO2.
ii) Determine the isosteric heat of adsorption
6. If adsorption of pure gases A and B follow the Langmuir isotherm equations, calculate the total
loading of the adsorbates per gram of the solid in equilibrium with an equimolar mixture of A and
B at a total pressure of 1 bar. Assume that the Langmuir isotherm is obeyed by the mixture as
well.

qA = 1.72pA/(1+0.92pA)

qB = 0.33pB/(1+0.18pB)

Calculate the adsorption separation factor αAB, if a mixture of A and B (60% A, Total pressure = 1
bar) is in equilibrium with the adsorbent.
 7. An aqueous solution containing a valuable solute is coloured by small amounts of an impurity.
Before crystallization, the impurity is to be removed by adsorption on a decolorizing carbon which
adsorbs only insignificant amounts of the principle solute. A series of laboratory tests was made by
stirring various amounts of the adsorbent into the batches of the original solution until equilibrium
was established, yielding the following data at constant temperature:

Kg carbon/ kg sol 0 0.001 0.004 0.008 0.02 0.04

Equilibrium colour 9.6 8.1 6.3 4.3 1.7 0.7
It is desired to reduce the colour to 10% of its original value. Determine the quantity of fresh carbon
required per 1000 kg of solution for a single-stage operation, for two-stage crosscurrent process
using minimum total amount of carbon, and for two-stage counter current operation.

8. Determine the number of transfer units and adsorbent circulation rate required to separate a gas
containing 60% ethylene and 40% propane by volume into products containing 5 and 95 % ethylene
by volume, isothermally at 25OC temperature and 2.25 atm pressure, using activated carbon as the
adsorbent and a reflux ration of twice the minimum.
9. Adsorption equilibrium data for the decolourization of a sample of waste oil using a special type
of clay collected from a set of laboratory experiments could be fitted by a Henry’s law type relation
Y = 4.2+10-4 X, where Y=number of ‘colour units’ per kg oil, and X=number of ‘colour units’ per
kg clay in equilibrium. One thousand kilograms of waste oil having an initial colour concentration
of 50 units has to be treated to reduce the concentration to 1 colour unit. The adsorbent has an
effective specific surface area of 25 m/kg, and the surface mass transfer coefficient is kL= 5.2 + 10-
6 m/s (on the solid-phase concentration basis). The density of the oil is 950 kg/m3.
i) Calculate the minimum quantity of adsorbent required.
ii) What is the required contact time if 1.2 times the minimum amount of adsorbent is used?
10. The following data have been collected on equilibrium adsorption of nitrogen on a porous adsorbent
at 77.4 K, the normal boiling point of nitrogen. Determine
i) Types of porous material ii) Specific surface area iii) Equivalent Kelvin radii and Adsorbed
thickness iv) Pore volume and porosity

Pressure, mm Hg 10 20 40 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 500

Volume of N2 71.3 142.2 287.7 680 1025 1053 1175 1316 1996 3451 5283
adsorbed
 11. Vinyl chloride is a bulk organic chemical required for the production of polyvinyl chloride (PVC),
a widely used polymer. Since vinyl chloride is a toxic and carcinogenic volatile organic compound
(VOC), it must be removed from any waste gas stream containing this compound. Adsorption in a
packed bed of activated carbon is a practical method of its removal from an emission. The following
table shows the experimental breakthrough data for adsorption of vinyl chloride on granular
activated carbon (GAC) at 20°.
Time 141 154 166.7 189.7 205 225.6 246 261 282 297 318 338 350
t(min)
y/yi 0 0 0.02 0.14 0.22 0.41 0.59 0.69 0.8 0.9 0.96 0.99 1.0

Details of the experimental parameters are: bed length, L = 15.2 cm; bed diameter, d = 2.3 cm; gas
flow rate = 80 cm3/s at 1 atm and 20°C; bed porosity, e = 0.36; interstitial gas velocity = 0.535 m/s;
vinyl chloride concentration in the feed = 190 ppm (by volume); yi = mole fraction of the solute in
the feed gas and y is that in the effluent.
i) Calculate the length of the mass transfer zone, the velocity of the stoichiometric front and the
saturation capacity of the bed at the influent gas concentration.
ii) A waste gas stream containing 190 ppm (by volume) vinyl chloride is to be treated with activated
carbon in a packed bed at a rate of 20m3/min to reduce its concentration by 98%. Using the above
breakthrough data, determine the bed diameter, the height and pressure drop if an adsorption period
of 10 h is allowed. The superficial gas velocity to be used is the same as that of the experimental
study.
12. A gas stream containing 1.07 X 10-7gmol/L of a contaminant (mol. wt. = 60) flows through a bed
of adsorbent at a superficial velocity of 0.3 m/s. The temperature is 300 K and the pressure is
essentially atmospheric. Given the following data, calculate the breakthrough time and the velocity
and length of the mass transfer wave-front. Calculate the same parameters again considering pore
diffusion if the average pore diameter is 20 nm and its tortuosity t = 2.3.
Data: density of the adsorbent particles = 850 kg/m3; bed porosity= 0.40; specific surface area
(external) = 350 m2/m3; particle diameter = 0.5 cm; internal porosity of a pellet = 0.42; diffusivity
of the contaminant in the gas, D = 0.13 cm2/s; density of the gas stream = 1.18 kg/m3, its viscosity
= 1.85 X 10-7 kg/m.s. The adsorption equilibrium follows the Langmuir isotherm.
q = qm (KC/1+ KC)
where, q = gmol solute adsorbed/g solid; C = gas concentration, gmol/L; K = 126.8 L/gmol; q=
0.00543 gmol/g.
13. Water containing 120 ppm Ca++ is to be treated with an 8% DVB-crosslinked resin in the Na+-form
to remove 95% of the calcium ions. The resin has an exchange capacity of 2 eq./L. Calculate the
amount of resin required to treat 10 m of the water.
14. A waste stream of alcohol vapor in air from a process was adsorbed by activated carbon particles
in a packed bed having a diameter of 4 cm and length of 14 cm containing 79.2 g of carbon. The
inlet gas stream having a concentration co of 600 ppm and a density of 0.00115 g/cm3 entered the
bed at a flow rate of 754 cm3/s. Data in below table give the concentrations of the breakthrough
curve. The break-point concentration is set at c/co= 0.01. Do as follows.
i) Determine the break-point time, the fraction of total capacity used up to the break point,
and the length of the unused bed. Also determine the saturation loading capacity of the
carbon.
ii) If the break point time required for a new column is 6h, what is the total new length of
column required?
Time 0 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6 6.2 6.5 6.8
t(min)
c/co 0 0 0.002 0.030 0.155 0.396 0.658 0.903 0.933 0.975 0.995