ADSORPTION
Introduction to adsorption
1. Adsorption is a solid-fluid operation in which components in
the fluid mixture are separated by preferentially concentrating
them on the surface of a solid.
2. The solid has an ability to concentrate some of the
components from the fluid mixture, on its surface.
3. The solid phase is called as the adsorbent, while the
components that is getting adsorbed is called as the adsorbate.
4. The operation could be batch-wise, where the feed fluid
mixture is contacted with the adsorbent phase in batches.
5. The operation could also be carried out in a continuous stage-
wise manner, where either a single stage operation or a
multistage operation is a possibility.
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6. The multistage operation could be carried out either in a
cross current manner or in a counter current manner.
7. In many cases, the adsorbent phase is confined to a fixed
bed, while the fluid phase flows in a continuous manner.
a. Thus, the adsorption can be carried out in a semi- batch
mode, which is not possible in operations involving liquid-
liquid, gas-liquid or gas-gas contact.
Applications of adsorption
1. It is used for the dehumidification of air and other gases.
2. It is used for removal of objectionable odours and
impurities from industrial gases like 𝐶𝑂2.
3. It is used to recover valuable solvent vapor from their
dilute mixtures with air or other gases.
4. It is used to fractionate mixtures of hydrocarbon gases
containing gases like methane, ethane, ethylene, propane
and propylene.
5. It is used to remove dissolved moisture from gasoline.
6. It is used for decolorization of various petroleum
products and aqueous sugar solutions.
7. It is used for removing objectionable taste and odour
from water.
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8. It is used for fractionation of aromatic and paraffinic
hydrocarbons.
Types of adsorption
1. The phenomenon of adsorption could be physical or
chemical nature.
2. Accordingly, adsorption is classified as-
a. Physical adsorption.
b. Chemical adsorption.
3. Physical adsorption
a. Also called as van der Waals adsorption.
b. This is due to the intermolecular forces of attraction
between the molecules of the adsorbent and the
adsorbate.
c. Occurs when intermolecular forces of attraction
between the molecules of the adsorbed component
and the adsorbent becomes greater than the inter
molecular forces of attraction between molecules of
the adsorbed component.
d. It is a reversible phenomenon as in this case, the
adsorbed substance can be recovered without
altering its chemical nature.
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e. An example of physical adsorption is condensation
of a gas on the surface of adsorbent at a pressure less
than its vapor pressure at the prevailing temperature.
f. The physical adsorption is accompanied with
evolution of heat, which is somewhat larger than the
latent heat of vaporization.
g. If the adsorbent is crystalline in nature, the adsorbed
substance will not be able to penetrate the crystal
lattice and remain on the surface of the adsorbent.
h. If the adsorbent is porous in nature, the adsorbent
substance does penetrate the adsorbent if it has an
ability of wetting it.
4. Chemical adsorption
a. It is also called as chemisorption.
b. It is also called as activated adsorption
c. This is due to a chemical interaction between the
adsorbent and the adsorbate
d. Heat is evolved which is of the order of magnitude
of heat of reaction
e. It is a irreversible phenomenon, wherein the
adsorbed and desorbed substance are totally
different.
f. This type of adsorption is important in catalysis.
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Adsorption equilibria
1. For the adsorption of a single vapor or gas, the
adsorption equilibria is obtained by plotting equilibrium
partial pressure on 𝑌-axis and concentration of adsorbate
on the X-axis, at constant temperature.
2. Consider a case where gas/vapor 𝐴 is adsorbed on a
adsorbent.
3. With increased pressure, the concentration of the
adsorbate on the surface of the adsorbent increase.
4. With decrease pressure, the adsorbate gets desorbed.
5. If the pressure becomes greater than the vapor pressure
of the gas, then concentration on the surface of the
adsorbent will increase due to its liquefaction and not the
adsorption.
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6. The adsorption equilibria will be different for different
gases on the same adsorbent and same gas will exhibit
different adsorption equilibria on different adsorbents.
7. There are three commonly used mathematical
expressions for describing adsorption equilibria of vapor.
These are-
a. The Langmuir adsorption isotherm.
b. Brunauer-Emmett-Teller [BET] adsorption isotherm.
c. Freundlich adsorption isotherm.
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