The removal of volatile organic compounds from supply air using a desiccant column – A theoretical study

The capability of silica gel to remove Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) from air under dynamic conditions was theoretically investigated using a packed bed desiccant column. A rigorous model was developed for the prediction of breakthrough profiles of benzene on a silica gel packed desiccant bed. Simulations were carried out on an isothermal, desiccant packed, fixed-bed and single compound-in inert-carrier system to determine the effects of varying operating and design parameters such as bed temperature, initial gas phase concentration, initial adsorbed phase concentration, bed length, particle radius and interstitial velocity. The Dubinin–Raduskevish equation was used to predict the adsorption equilibrium constant, K. The characteristic benzene–silica gel breakthrough curves of the adsorption process were produced using Excel. The potential of the model to predict any Adsorbent–VOC breakthrough curves under various operating and design conditions was demonstrated in this paper.