Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
0 ABSTRACT
The objective of the experiment was to study the adsorption in a packed bed for a solid liquid
system. This is done by plotting the breakthrough curve of adsorption for a given system and
then calculating the length of unused bed for the given system. The set-up consists of three
borosilicate columns having different diameters & lengths. For flow of fluid a pump & rotameter
is provided. At the inlet of column, valves are provided to feed only one column at a time. Valves
are provided at the bottom of columns & liquid tanks to drain out after running the apparatus.
Filters are provided before the column drain valves to prevent the charcoal from drain. In order
to achieve the aims and objective of the experiment a packed bed of length 1.0m filled with
activated charcoal was used. A colored liquid of Potassium permanganate (KMnO4) was passed
through the bed under a constant flow rate of 10LPH and temperature. Samples of the colored
liquid were collected at 10 minute intervals till the liquid color was consistent. The color of the
liquid became fairly consistent after 60 minutes and 10 minutes later, no change was noticed.
The samples absorbance was measured used a UV spectrophotometer which detected the
capacity of the liquid to absorb light. The initial adsorbance detected was 3 while the final was
0.292. The wavelength of the uv-light passed through the samples was also constant at 526 cm.
The initial concentration of potassium permanganate (KMnO4) was calculated to be 0.9308
which is also the concentration of the feed. While the final concentration reading was 0.0906.
The Breakpoint time (B) was found to be 10 minutes while the Ideal time ( S) was 30 minutes,
giving the length of unused bed was found to be 0.6667m.
2.0 INTRODUCTION
2.1 Theory
Adsorption is the selective transfer of an adsorbent solute from a fluid phase to a batch of rigid
particles. The usual selectivity of an adsorbent between solute and carrier fluid or between
different solutes makes it possible to separate certain solutes from the carrier or from one
another.
It occurs when molecules diffusing in the fluid phase are held for a period of time by forces
emanating from an adjacent surface. The surface represents a gross discontinuity in the structure
of the solid, and atoms at the surface have a residue of molecular forces which are not satisfied
by surrounding atoms like those in the body of the structure.
These residual or Vander Waals forces are common to all surface and the only reason that certain
solids are designated "adsorbents" is that they can be manufactured in a highly porous form,
giving rise to a large internal surface. Few fixed beds have internal probes that would permit
measurement of profiles such as concentration profile. However these profiles can be predicted
and used in calculating the curve of concentration versus time for fluid leaving the bed. The type
of curve is called break through curve.
Length of unused bed can be calculated as:
L(S B)
LUB=
S
Where L, S ,B and LUB are total length of bed, ideal time, break point time and length of unused
bed. B can be calculated from the above graph, it is the time where some minimum
concentration shows. S can also calculated from the above graph, it is determined in a way that
the areas of the shaded portions are equal.
3.1 20 liter of colored liquid was prepared by dissolving known amount of KMnO4 in 20 liter of
water.
3.3 The switches given on the panel were ensured that they were at the OFF position.
3.4 The feed tank was filled with the colored liquid.
3.10 The flow control valve V1 and bypass valve V2 were opened and adjusted.
3.12 Samples were collected from outlet of column 1 after a time interval.
3.15 The experiment was let to run till the change in color of outlet liquid becomes almost stable.
3.19 The samples were collected from the outlet of column-2 after a time interval.
3.20 The time was noted down.
3.22 The experiment was let to run till the change in color of outlet liquid becomes almost stable.
3.26 The samples were collected from the outlet of column-3 after a time interval.
3.29 The experiment was let to run till the change in color of outlet liquid becomes almost stable.
3.31 When the experiment was over the supply of feed was stopped by closing the valve V1.
3.34 The columns were drained by opening the valve V6, V7 and V8.
3.35 The feed tank was drained by opening the valve V9.
3.36 The product tank was drained by opening the valve V10.
3.37 The charcoal was removed by opening the filter cups of the column properly.
(min) ABS
0 3.000
10 2.962
20 3.000
30 3.000
40 2.296
50 0.399
60 1.850
70 0.292
The experiment was conducted in order to study the adsorption in a packed bed for a solid liquid
system which is the main objective of the experiment. This is done by plotting the breakthrough
curve of adsorption for a given system and also by calculating the length of unused bed for the
given system. In this case activated charcoal was used as the adsorbent and the potassium
permanganate (KMnO4) of unknown concentration was the colored liquid that was used as the
adsorbate. The length of the column that was used in this experiment is 1.0 m and filled with the
activated charcoal pellets. The activated charcoal pellets was used as the packed bed through
which potassium permanganate was allowed to flow through it at a constant flow rate of 10 LPH.
Adsorption is a process where the adhesion of atoms or molecules of gas, liquid or dissolved
solid (adsorbate) on a surface (adsorbent). Absorption on the other hand is when the substance
such as a liquid or a solid (absorbent) takes up another substance such as a liquid or a gas
(absorbate) through spaces or pores of its molecules. When speaking of the difference between
these two processes, is that in adsorption, no new chemical structure is formed whilst in
absorption a new chemical structure is formed. Therefore, in order to investigate adsorbance of
the colored liquid, a table of standard values and absorbance to a plot of graph of best fit which
shows the relationship between concentration and absorbance (ABS). The values that were used
to plot the graph shown below are shown in table 3.1.
0.2
0.18 f(x) = 3.22x
0.16
0.14
0.12
ABS 0.1
0.08
0.06
0.04
0.02
0
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07
Concentration
Figure 4.1: Graph of absorbance with respect to concentration using standard values given.
Absorbance is the capacity of a substance to absorb light. Therefore, the relationship between
absorbance and concentration is that, the high the absorbance, the more concentration the
solution. Samples of the colored liquid were collected every 10 minutes till the color was almost
constant. This was to investigate the amount of dissolved solution which was adsorbed by the
activated charcoal. The more the liquid was adsorbed, the more concentrated the remaining
solution was. This is due to the fact that, the liquid adsorbed by activated charcoal contained a
huge amount of water and less of potassium permanganate compared to the one collected from
the column. Hence, the longer the time taken to collect the liquid, the more concentrated it
became till the activated charcoal became saturated and could no longer adsorb the liquid. The
results below show the change the liquid concentration and absorbance with time.
With the equation obtained from the graph above, the concentration of samples that were
collected at 10 minute intervals were calculated as shown in the appendix. The experimental
values obtained are as shown in table 3.3. These values were then used to plot a graph which
helps in better understanding of how the concentration of colored liquid differed with time.
1
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
C/CF 0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Time (min)
Figure 4.2: The breakthrough curve showing the relationship between concentration of
liquid and time.
It was observed that the though the values fluctuated, generally the concentration of the colored
liquid decreased with time. The graph was plotted using the ratio of difference of concentration
feed (CF) and the concentration of samples (C S) with time. The fluctuations in the values of
concentration may have been due to the unstable flow rate of the feed. The fluctuations might
have also been caused by errors made when placing the liquid samples in the spectrophotometer
used to measure the absorbance of the liquid. As it is known that the absorbance of a liquid is a
function of its concentration. Ultimately, the concentration of Potassium permanganate increased
with time. This was also noticed by the change of color of the liquid as time passed; thereby
confirming that adsorption was taking place. However, at the 60th minute of collecting the
samples, it was noticed that there was a dip in the curve showing that and error might have
occurred when conducting the experiment. Which may be caused by lack of feed sample in the
apparatus or even increasing the flow rate of the colored liquid. Thus, by doing this, it disrupts
the flow and dynamics of the apparatus to produce ideal results.
But in an ideal situation, the curve from the 60 th to the 70th minute was meant to be almost
forming a straight line proving that the colored liquid was stabilizing, which could be deduced by
observing the almost constant color change between these two respective time intervals. This
behavior also meant that the activated charcoal in the packed bed was saturated and could no
longer adsorb the liquid.
The Breakpoint time (B) was 10 minutes and the Ideal time ( S) was 30 minutes when the
system was now stable giving the length of the unused bed (LB) to be 0.6667m.
The experiment, adsorption in packed bed was conducted to study the adsorption in a packed for
a solid-liquid system. The aims of the experiment were to plot the Breakthrough curve of
adsorption for a given system and to calculate the length of the unused bed for a given system. In
this experiment, activated charcoal was used as the adsorbent and a liquid of potassium
permanganate (KMnO4) in water was the adsorbate. Eight different samples of the liquid were
collected every 10 minutes and the absorbance of the liquid sample was measured using UV
spectrophotometer. The experiment was conducted under constant temperature and pressure. The
Breakthrough curve was plotted which gave the Breakpoint time ( B) as 10 minutes and the Ideal
time (S) as 30 minutes. The length of the unused bed was calculated to be 0.6667m. The
objective and aims of this experiment were achieved and therefore, the experiment was a success
within the margin of problem encountered and errors made.
However, there were some errors made during the experiment. The initial sample of the colored
liquid was not collected at the right time. This affected the values of concentration calculated
every 10 minutes. The fluctuations in the values of absorbance recorded showed that the samples
were not taken at exact time interval and that the flow rate of the feed was fluctuating. The
values of absorbance recorded could have fluctuated due to the wrong positioning of the sample
holders when placing them in the UV spectrophotometer. Collecting samples of constant volume
at a small amount also helps in maintaining the amount of feed that is contained in the apparatus
and hence also maintaining the flow rate.
Therefore, to avoid such errors being made both at experimental and industrial level, great care
should be taken when performing the adsorption in packed bed. It should be ensured that the
initial sample of the adsorbate is collected before being put in the column containing the
adsorbent. It should also be ensured that the flow rate of the adsorbate is monitored and kept
constant throughout the experiment. Ensure that all external factors such as temperature and
pressure are also monitored for any slight change in these factors may affect the adsorption
especially in gas-solid and gas-liquid systems. When placing the liquid sample holders in the UV
spectrophotometer, it should be ensured that the smooth surface of the holder face the open side
so that the UV light can pass through the liquid.
6.0 REFERENCES
1 Warren L. McCabe, Julian C. Smith and Peter Harriott, Unit Operations of Chemical
Engineering, McGraw-Hill, 2005.
2 Coulson, J.M. and Richardson, J.F., Chemical Engineering, Vol. II (Particle Technology
and Separation Processes), Pergamon, 1991.
7.0 APPENDIX
The length of column used was 1.0 m. The calculations shown below are at the 60th minute.