The adsorption and desorption characteristics of a binary component system of toluene and methylethylketone on activated carbon modified with phosphoric acid Original Research Article

As adsorption characteristics, breakthrough curve and adsorption capacity were investigated using a flow-typed fixed-bed adsorption system for single or binary component, mixed gas systems of toluene and methylethylketone (MEK) on activated carbon (AC) modified with phosphoric acid (PA). In the results, the amount of toluene and MEK adsorbed on the PA modified AC (PA/AC) was larger than that on the purified AC. The breakthrough curve of the key component (toluene) was sigmoidal in the binary components. However, the breakthrough curve of the non-key component (MEK) exhibited the roll-up phenomenon, which was entirely different from the single component adsorption process because of the competitive adsorption of the key component. After passing a stream of toluene over the MEK adsorbed PA/AC, almost all of the MEK was easily substituted with toluene and desorbed at 25 °C. Therefore, the roll-up of MEK was attributed to its lower adsorption intensity than toluene.