Practice problems in ADSORPTION and ION EXCHANGE Solutions

Q1. Adsorption isotherms

We considered three forms of isotherms:

Linear: q Kc - gives straight line on plot of q vs. c [1]

Freundlich: q Kc n - gives straight line on log-log plot of q vs. c [2]

q0 c
Langmuir: q - gives straight line of plot of 1/q vs. 1/c [3]
K c
The data are closest to a straight line on plot [3], indicating the Langmuir isotherm is the best fit.
The linearized form of the Langmuir equation is:

1 K 1 1

q q0 c q0

Using the line of best fit for the data in plot [3]:

1
Intercept 6.78
q0
1 g glucose
q0 0.147
6.78 g alumina

and

K
Slope 0.124
q0

K 0.124q0 0.1240.147 0.0182

g glucose
m 3 solution
Q2. Batch adsorption

Given:

M = 3 kg granular activated carbon

qF = 0 kg phenol / kg carbon

S = 2.5 m3 solution
cF = 0.25 kg phenol / m3 solution

Material balance on adsorbate (phenol), assuming solution volume S is constant:

q F M c F S qM cS
03 0.252.5 q3 c2.5

Operating line equation :

q 0.208 0.833c

Plot the equilibrium data and the operating line. At equilibrium, q and c are in equilibrium, at the
intersection of the two lines:
The equilibrium data are best fit by a Freundlich-type isotherm, as shown on the graph. Solving
analytically (or graphically) for the intersection of the two lines:

kg phenol
ceq 0.109
m 3 solution
kg phenol
q eq 0.118
kg carbon

Percent phenol extracted:

- Assuming solution volume S is constant

c F ceq 0.25 0.109

100% 100% 56.4%
cF 0.25

Q3. Fixed bed adsorption

From Example 2 in class (slide 13):

Height of bed: HT = 14 cm
Diameter of bed: D = 4 cm
Flow rate = 754 cm3/s

At the breakpoint: c/c0 = 0.01; tb = 3.65 h

Total capacity of bed: tt = 5.16 h

Usable capacity of bed: tu = 3.65 h

Length used to break point: HB = 9.9 cm

Length of unused bed: HUNB = 4.1 cm

On graph: A1 = 3.65 h; A2 = 1.51 h

 (a) For a constant flowrate, a change in the break point time (to tb = 8.5 h) will only change
the length of the column, not the diameter (D = 4 cm).

HUNB is constant; new HB is proportional to tb:

8.5h
H B (new) 9.9cm 23.1cm
3.65h

Height of new column:

HT (new) HUNB H B (new) 4.1 23.1 27.2cm HT

Fraction of capacity used up to the break point:

- On a plot of c/c0 vs t, A1 (~tb) will change with the length of the column, but A2 will be
constant (same mass transfer zone)

c
t t ,new 1 dt A1 A2 t b ,new A2 8.5 1.51 10.01h
0
c0
t u ,new t b ,new 8.5h
t u ,new 8.5
0.849
t t ,new 10.01

(b) When the flowrate changes, the diameter needs to change to keep similar flow (velocity)
and mass transfer characteristics. The length of the bed and the fraction of capacity used
will change with the break point as calculated in (a): HT = 27.2 cm; tu/tt = 0.849.

For a constant flow velocity, the cross-sectional area will change proportionally to the volumetric
flow rate:

Flow new
Anew Aold
Flow old
2000 2
2
Dnew Dold
4 754 4

Dnew
2000
4cm 2 6.5cm
754
Q4. Ion-exchange column

Given:
HT = 30.5 cm
D = 2.59 cm
Mass of ion-exchange resin: 99.3 g

Feed flow rate: 1.37 cm3/s

Feed concentration: c0 = 0.18 M (0.18 mol CuSO4 / L)

At the break point (tb), c/c0 = 0.010

Plotting the breakthrough data:

A1 A2

tb ts

Break point time: from the graph, when c/c0 = 0.010, tb = 460 s

Fraction of total capacity used up to the break point:

Usable capacity of the bed: = 0 (1 ) = 1
0

- Because the break point concentration is small, = 460


Total capacity of the bed: = 0 (1 ) = 1 + 2
0

- Can be solved by integrating the area above the curve graphically or numerically
- Alternatively, it can be shown that (A1+A2) = tt ts, the time when c/c0 = 0.5
- From the graph,

= 645

The fraction of total bed capacity used up to break point is then:

460
= = 0.713
645

Length of unused bed:

460
= = 30.5 = 21.75
645

=
= 30.5 21.75 = 8.75

Saturation loading capacity of the ion-exchange resin:

Amount of Cu being fed into the 99.3 g resin is equal to:

3 1
1.37 3
645 0.18 63.54 = 10.106
1000

Saturation loading capacity of the solid:

10.106
= = 0.102
99.3
Q5. Scale-up of ion-exchange column

Given:
Column I: HT = 0.4 m Column II: tb = 13.0 min
Flow rate = 0.2 m3/h
tb = 8.0 min
tu/tt = 0.65

In mass transfer zone, length of unused bed (HUNB) is:

= (1 )

= (1 0.65) 0.4 = 0.14

Length of used bed (HB)is:

=

= 0.65 0.4 = 0.26

For Column II, the following relation can be applied to determine the length of used bed:
,2 ,2 ,1 ,2
= ,2 =
,1 ,1 ,1
0.26 13
,2 = = 0.4225
8

Total length for the column II, assuming that the length of unused bed (HUNB) is unchanged:
,2 = ,2 +
,2 = 0.4225 + 0.14 = 0.5625