Pilot-scale tests, activated carbon

A major concern regarding the use of this technology under such rapidly fluctuating pressures is the stability of the adsorbent. Long-term testing of several types of synthetic zeolites and activated carbon in bench-scale, large-pilot-scale, and commercial units has demonstrated that adsorbent lifetimes of well over one year are to be expected in most applications. 

A batch, 48-cm ID pilot-scale FBR was used to produce more than 60 kg of activated carbon from C2 coal. Pilot tests were conducted at Svedala Inc., a chemical process equipment firm located in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. Five pilot production tests were made. The processing conditions employed in the pilot production runs were comparable to those identified during the bench-scale studies of coal C2 except that about 50 kg of <0.25 mm coal was typically used. 

The mercury removal performance of the activated carbon samples produced in this study were measured both in a bench-scale test apparatus and in a sorbent injection pilot-plant. 

The effect of hindered amine promoters on the rate of CO2 absorption into a potassium carbonate solution has been evaluated using a single sphere absorber (Sartori and Savage, 1983) and a pilot scale packed column (Weinberg et al. 1983). The single sphere absorber tests showed that unpromoted potassium carbonate provides a mass transfer enhancement in the range of 10-30 times that of simple physical absoiption. The addition of a conventional amine activator (DEA) further increases the mass transfer rate by a factor of about 3, and the substitution of a hindered amine for the DEA gives an additional increase by a factor of about 2. 

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