The quantitative use of the Bohart-Adams equation to describe effluent vapour profiles from filter beds Original Research Article

In studies of the removal of gases and vapours of varying volatility from a N2 stream by adsorbent filter beds it is shown, for the first time, that the Bohart-Adams equation, first proposed over 70 years ago, can with slight modification be used to give good quantitative fits to the effluent vapour profiles at 0% R.H. This was true for conventional carbons and both carbonised and uncarbonised macroreticular resins, and for vapours reversibly adsorbed. Desorption profiles could only be fitted to the equation for the most volatile sorbates. Under conditions of high humidity, when water displacement competes with sorbate uptake, then adherence to the equation only occurs at intermediate vapour volatility.