Packed beds fraction saturated

A cylindrical extractor, 1-m long, is filled with crushed-vegetable-oil seeds. The oil is to be extracted with pumping supercritical carbon dioxide at a density of 500 kg/m3 through the packed bed. The estimated solubility of the oil in the dense gas at this density is 3.425 kg/m3. The superficial velocity of the carbon dioxide in the bed will be 1 mra/s. This fluid velocity is sufficiently small for the fluid to become saturated with oil. We are required to estimate the minimum time of operation for complete extraction of the oil from the bed. The initial oil fraction is 12% (wt/wt) based on wet seeds, the void fraction of the bed is 40%, and the density of the particles is 900 kg/m3. 

Example 15.4-2 Steroid recovery We have made a significant amount of chemically modified steroid for use as a topical anti-inflammatory like hydrocortizone, which is used for reducing allergic reactions such as that to poison ivy. When we measure the adsorption of this hormone, we obtain the data shown in Fig. 15.4-2(a). These data are for a superficial velocity of 1 cm/min through a packed bed of 310 pm spheres with a void fraction of 0.4. The saturation concentration per volume qop is 300 times the feed concentration jo- (a) Are these data consistent with the model for irreversible adsorption (b) What is the rate constant kdl (c) Is this rate constant consistent with literature estimates ... 

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