Single component and competitive adsorption of propane, carbon dioxide and butane on Vycor glass

Equilibrium of gas phase adsorption on Vycor glass has been investigated. Adsorption isotherms for propane, carbon dioxide and butane as pure gases, binary mixtures and ternary mixtures were determined experimentally as a function of temperature using a volumetric method. The single-component isotherms were described with the Langmuir and Freundlich equations. Additionally, a second order isotherm based on statistical thermodynamics and an isotherm equation based on vacancy solution theory taking into account real phase behavior were used for fitting single-component equilibrium data. In order to describe the measured partial isotherms for binary mixtures, at first simple extensions of the single-component isotherm models were used, i.e., the conventional competitive Langmuir model and a multi-Freundlich equation based on the ideal adsorbed solution theory (IAS). Since these two simple isotherm models failed to represent the unusual competitive behavior observed, three model extensions using additional mixture parameters were applied, i.e., two modified multi-Langmuir equations based on: (a) statistical thermodynamics and (b) vacancy solution theory and a modified multi-Freundlich IAS model correcting spreading pressure uncertainties. These three model equations were found to be capable to describe the observed behavior better. Finally, the measured partial adsorption equilibrium data of the ternary system were correlated based on the extended equations using the determined additional binary parameters. The results obtained reveal the difficulty to predict accurately multi-component adsorption equilibria.