(583c) A New Technique to Measure Multicomponent Adsorption Equilibrium: Integral Mass Balance (IMB)

Majority of adsorption applications involve gas mixtures. Accurate equilibrium data is necessary to design and operate these applications. Data is also important to test adsorption equilibrium models. Although models which can predict binary/mixture equilibrium for a class of systems, certainly any industrial entity will seek to check the actual data before investing large resources. On the other hand, Collection of binary and higher mixture data with existing approaches are tedious and very time consuming, as slow as one data point per day. There is a need to collect quality multicomponent adsorption data quickly and accurately. It is also preferable to collect data with full control of the independent variables { T, P, yi } as the gas phase properties. The data measured are the partial amount adsorbed of each component, Ni.

A new flow-through system is developed and tested to quickly measure binary adsorption equilibrium data at any desired T,P and yi. More importantly the experiments are very fast in the order of an hour per data point, compared to one point per day with systems/techniques with comparable accuracy. Unlike other similar systems based on breakthrough integration, the incorporation of an electronic balance eliminates the need to measure the outlet flowrate. Hence, the technique does not have an exit flowmeter which is usually the source for large uncertainties in measured partial amount adsorbed. The composition of the outlet gas is measured as usual in all chromatographic techniques. A quadrupole-Mass Spectrometer is used at outlet to closely monitor composition over time.

In this presentation, we will explain the concept, show the experimental system, explain data collection details, and examine the limitations of the approach. We will also show the test results comparing new measurements on O2/N2 mixtures in 5A-zeolite to those published by two different labs.