Mathematical Modeling of Fixed Bed Adsorption: Influence of Main Parameters on Breakthrough Curve

Dynamic modeling and simulation of fixed bed adsorption process and explaining the behavior of the breakthrough curve reported in this paper. adsorption of sulfur compounds that present in road fuel, has posed a great challenge. a model of fixed bed adsorption from fuel was formulated with non-ideal plug flow behavior and considered veloc- ity variation along a column. the model was solved using the method of lines (mol) numerical solution - a technique for solving pdes - in which all dimension was discretized except one; as a result, the set of odes solved by highly accurate methods and low computational cost. the effect of various factors, such as flow rate (4-10 cc/min), inlet con- centration (125-500 ppm), and bed height (10-40 cm) on adsorption performance were investigated. the behavior of the breakthrough curve with some parameters such as the degree of bed utilization, breakpoint time, film mass transfer coefficient, and height of the ad- sorption zone was analyzed. high bed column, high flow rate, and high inlet concentration happened to be better conditions, in term of used overall bed capacity percentage for the adsorption system.