MODELING OF FIXED BED ADSORPTION COLUMN FOR THE REMOVAL OF PHENOL IN WASTE WATER

Abstract

Phenol is a target pollutant to be removed from waste waters from different industries because of its toxicity. The kinetic behavior of a fixed-bed adsorber can be explained and the characteristic break through curve for the adsorption of phenol in waste water onto Amberlite XAD16 can be obtained through mathematical models. Langmuir isotherm model is used to fit the equilibrium data. For modeling adsorption kinetics a linear driving force approximation was used .The LDF rate constants accounting for film mass transfer resistance, macro pore diffusion and adsorption were grouped in an overall mass transfer coefficient. The proposed mathematical model for fixed-bed adsorption is solved by implementing a computer algorithm in MATLAB (V.7.3) software and compared with experimental data in literature. The effects of important and influencing parameters such as flow rate and temperature are studied