Removal of VOC at Low Concentrations

The removal of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) with ACs is of interest because these compounds can be very harmful for both human health and the environment, even at very low concentrations [6,107-109, 131-138], 

FIGURE 1.36 Benzene breakthrough curves for samples AT and FT, at room temperature and 200 ppmv benzene. 

for example, adsorption of benzene and toluene at low concentrations (200 ppmv) has been carried out at room temperature in a fixed-bed reactor coupled to a mass spectrometer [107-109], Two kinds of ACs have been studied pristine ones and some thermally treated ones (including T in their nomenclature). The purpose of the thermal treatment was to remove most of the oxygen surface groups, to be able to analyze only the effect of porosity on VOC adsorption. 

Adsorption capacities for some activated carbons tested for benzene and toluene uptake at low concentration (i.e., 200 ppmv) 

FIGURE 1.37 Relationship between volume of narrow micropores calcnlated by COj adsorption and benzene adsorption capacity at 200 ppmv for several pristine and thermally treated activated carbons. 

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