Equilibrium Theory of Adsorption Column Dynamics for Isothermal Systems

EQUILIBRIUM THEORY OF ADSORPTION COLUMN DYNAMICS FOR ISOTHERMAL SYSTEMS 

The equilibrium theory of binary and multicomponent isothermal adsorption systems appears to have been first developed by Glueckauf. More general and comprehensive treatments have been developed by Rhee, Aris, and Amundson and by Helfferich and Klein. The former treatment exploits the analogy between chromatographic theory and the theory of kinematic waves. The detailed quantitive theory has been developed only for ideal Langmuir systeiris without axial dispersion or mass transfer resistance and in which the initial and boundary conditions represent constant steady states. Subject to these constraints the treatment is sufficiently general to allow the dynamic behavior to be predicted for systems with any number of components, provided only that the separation factors are known. In the 

A key concept in the equilibrium theory of multicomponent adsorption is the concept of coherence. Coherent behavior was assumed by most of the early workers, including Glueckauf, but the nature of this assumption appears to have been recognized only more recently by Helfferich. For a dilute equilibrium plug flow system the differential fluid phase mass balance [Eq. (9.1) may be written for each component in the form 

The equilibrium adsorbed phase concentration depends only on the local concentrations of all adsorbable components  

Equation (9.10) may therefore be written in the form of the kinematic wave equation  

---