Fixed bed studies for the sorption of metal ions onto peat

D. C.K. Ko, J. F. Porter, G. McKay*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

24 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In this study, peat has been used as an adsorbent for the removal of heavy metals in a fixed bed system. Experiments have been performed to investigate the effect of flowrate and bed depth on the peat-metal ion system. A film-pore diffusion model has been used to predict the breakthrough behaviour. The three major parameters in the mathematical model are the external mass transfer coefficient, k, the effective pore diffusivity, Deff, and the solid-phase loading capacity, qe. One of the main problems in this type of modelling is the prediction of qe, particularly for sorbent-solute systems which take a long time to achieve equilibrium saturation. Some researchers have used the equilibrium isotherm capacity, some utilize a fixed fraction of the isotherm capacity and other workers perform the numerical or graphical mass balances at the breakthrough curves, which is time-consuming and tedious. The present method incorporates a novel empirical solution for qe which is correlated with the service time. Good agreement between the predicted theoretical breakthrough curves and the experimental results is observed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)73-86
Number of pages14
JournalProcess Safety and Environmental Protection
Volume81
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2003
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Adsorption
  • Fixed bed column
  • Mass transfer coefficient
  • Mathematical modelling
  • Metal ion
  • Peat

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