Methanol vapor as a contaminant presented
in industrial streams
leads to catalysts deactivation. Therefore, it needs deep removal
with adsorption technique. The isotherms and effective diffusion coefficients
of methanol vapor are essential to design the purification process.
The equilibrium sorption of methanol steam on commercial zeolites
NaX, KA, and CaA and activated alumina were tested using an intelligent
gravimetric analyzer, respectively. The equilibrium experiments were
carried out at 303.2 K and pressures of up to 19.6 kPa, and the results
obtained were fitted with the Dubinin–Astakhov (D-A) model.
Moreover, the diffusion of methanol vapor in the adsorbents was investigated,
and the effective diffusion coefficients were obtained with fitting
the Fick diffusion model. The adsorbents are compared on the basis
of adsorption capacities for methanol steam, and the descending order
of zeolites is NaX > CaA > KA > Al2O3. The sorption
equilibrium experimental results of methanol steam on NaX, KA, and
CaA agree well with D-A isotherm model, while it is not very well
consistent on Al2O3. The equilibrium adsorption
capacities of methanol vapor are consistent with the effective diffusion
coefficients on the adsorbents.