Fluid-Solid Adsorption in Batch and Continuous Processing: A Review and Insights into Modeling

Adsorption is a highly versatile separation technique that can be used both for product separation and waste purification, involving selective interaction of one or more compounds from the liquid phase on a solid called adsorbent. In literature, several models have been proposed to describe both the kinetics and the equilibrium data of different systems. These models are relevant for fluid-solid adsorption and fluid-solid reactions. Kinetic models can be classified in either pseudo-kinetic or diffusive models. Most of them cannot be applied directly in simulating the behavior of continuous columns, while others are applicable only in a narrow range of experimental conditions. The performances of a general continuous adsorption model have been tested by performing a dedicated parametric investigation with the aim to give an overview of how the parameters affect the continuous operation.