Saturation performance of ion-exchange and adsorption columns

Abstract

Regenerative operations in fixed beds are inherently more difficult to explain and calc. than the common steady-state counterflow operations, and a generally applicable method of analyzing them has not been available. The use of suitable dimensionless parameters makes it possible to represent the complete family of concn.-history curves, at any one value of an equil. parameter, as a contour plot in terms of a column-capacity parameter and a soln.-capacity parameter. Although analytical solns. are lacking for the differential equations representing the mass-transfer cases, numerical solutions for them are derived in this paper. With a min. of exptl. data, these numerical solutions can be used by methods outlined here to predict column behavior over substantial ranges of operating conditions. [on SciFinder(R)]