Title: The removal of organic pollutants from industrial effluents via tapered bed adsorption columns

Authors: Gordon McKay, Michael Fan Fu Sze

Addresses: Department of Chemical Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong. ' Department of Chemical Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong

Abstract: Tapered bed adsorption columns, using activated carbon, have been used to study the removal of two organic pollutants, an acid dye and para-chlorophenol, from aqueous effluent. Equilibrium sorption isotherms were measured to provide the saturation capacity (qe) of each pollutant by Chemviron Filtrasorb 400 carbon, for operating continuous adsorption columns. The three parameter Redlich-Peterson (R-P) isotherm gives the best fit model to describe the sorption process of these organic pollutants. The conventional Bed Depth Service Time (BDST) model has not been applied to tapered beds before, as the linear velocity of fluid is continually changing along the column. Therefore, some modifications have been developed to the original model in this paper. This modified BDST model has proved to be successful in correlating the bed heights and service time for tapered column adsorption.

Keywords: adsorption; tapered columns; fixed bed; bed depth service time; BDST; activated carbon; para-chlorophenol; acid dye; organic pollutants; industrial effluent; saturation capacity; pollution.

DOI: 10.1504/IJETM.2008.017857

International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management, 2008 Vol.9 No.1, pp.20 - 33

Published online: 20 Apr 2008 *

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