The prediction of multicomponent adsorption equilibria from single-component data is one of the most challenging and important problems in adsorption. The chief obstacle to progress is a scarcity of accurate and consistent experimental data o®er a wide range of temperature and loading for testing theories. Se®eral binaries and one ternary system ( ) on two types of zeolites silicalite and faujasite were studied in a combination calorimeter-®olumetric apparatus. Acti®ity coefficients and excess functions for enthalpy, free energy, and entropy were extracted from the binary data using a three-constant equation to represent nonidealities. The successful correlation of binary excess functions with pure-component properties for type I isotherms on zeolites is a first step toward predicting multicomponent adsorption from single-gas adsorption and a major ad®ancement o®er the theory of ideal adsorbed solutions.
IntroductionThe ability of porous materials to adsorb fluids selectively is the basis of many industrial applications, especially catalysis and the separation and purification of gases and liquids. Industrial applications of adsorption include the recovery of organic solvent vapors, dehydration of gases, separation and purification of hydrogen from steam-methane reformers, separation and purification of air, separation of normal paraffins from branch and cyclic paraffins, production of olefins from Ž olefin and paraffin mixtures, and so on Tien, 1994; Critten-. den and Thomas, 1998; Yang, 1987 . Even though adsorption plays an important role in the gas separation and purification industry, the prediction of multicomponent equilibria is still Ž one of the most challenging problems in adsorption Talu, .
.The main problem is a lack of accurate and consistent experimental data for testing theories. Almost no data are available on enthalpy of adsorbed mixtures, although such information is necessary for the modeling of fixed-bed adsorbers. Indirect measurements of mixture heats of adsorption using volumetric or gravimetric methods are possible in principle, but require voluminous data on isobars, isotherms, Ž . and loci of constant composition Sircar, 1985Sircar, , 1991 Experimentally, an isotopic, steady-state kinetic technique Ž was used to calculate mixture heats of adsorption Bajusz et . al., 1998a,b . Other studies have used the isosteric method to Ž measure mixture equilibria Bulow, 1994; Bulow and Shen,¨. 1998; Hampson and Rees, 1993; Rees et al., 1991 . We have described previously a calorimeter for simultaneous measure-Ž ments of mixture equilibria and heats of adsorption Dunne Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to A. L. Myers.. et al., 1997; Siperstein et al., 1999a . Here, we report activity coefficients, excess free energies, and enthalpies of mixing in the adsorbed phase.The objective of this article is to understand the molecular basis for these deviations from ideality and attempt to predict them on the basis of single-gas properties. Deviations from ideal mixing are exp...