Why does the linear driving force model for adsorption kinetics work?

Abstract

The Linear Driving Force (LDF) model for gas adsorption kinetics is frequently and successfully used for analysis of adsorption column dynamic data and for adsorptive process designs because it is simple, analytic, and physically consistent. Yet, there is a substantial difference in the characteristics of isothermal batch uptake curves on adsorbent particles by the LDF and the more rigorous Fickian Diffusion (FD) model. It is demonstrated by using simple model systems that the characteristics of the adsorption kinetics at the single pore or the adsorbent particle level are lost in (a) evaluating overall uptake on a heterogeneous porous solid, (b) calculating breakthrough curves from a packed adsorbent column, and (c) establishing the efficiency of separation by an adsorptive process due to repeated averaging of the base kinetic property. That is why the LDF model works in practice.