Adsorption breakthrough behavior: Unusual effects and possible causes

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Abstract
Adsorption of water vapor on silica gel, at influent humidities from 6 to 80% at 25 and 50°C, yielded breakthrough curves of unusual shapes. Breakthrough patterns varied from the expected sigmoidal shape at low humidity to a curve resembling the tangent function, but symmetric about the stoichiometric breakthrough time. Unusual shapes were found to be due to subtle combination of Type‐IV isotherm behavior and heat effects. A mathematical model was developed to simulate the performance. The results show that complex breakthrough behavior need not be ascribed to complicated causes (such as diffusion in bidisperse pores), which require multiparameter fitting of experimental data. In fact, the effects may be predicted from properties measured in simple independent experiments, though some care is required to account for the effects accurately.

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