Adsorption of volatile organic compound (VOCs) over formulated prechar

Abstract

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are being released as a result from incomplete combustion processes in the industry. Dry sorbent injection of activated carbon on fabric filters is one of the methods that are being used for VOCs removal in the flue gas. Dry sorbents act as filter aids to enhance the adsorption efficiency besides to overcome wear and tear problems that occurred during filtration. Biochar which is grinded bamboo charcoal was combined with PreKotTM, a pre-coating agent as a filter aids formulation. This study introduced a newly two filter aids formulation known as PreChar10:90 and PreChar20:80 besides biochar as raw material. These three samples were initially evaluated through physical properties of moisture content and surface area before being tested on adsorption tests. PreChar20:80 and biochar presented a good sign with lower moisture content 3.306% and 3.417% respectively. Besides, surface area of both PreChar formulations was consecutively low compared to biochar due to PreKotTM existence as the PreKotTM’s size is much larger. Large particle size of the filter aids results in low surface area available. In the adsorption test, flow rates were manipulated to be 0.1 L/min, 0.3 L/min and 0.5 L/min during the adsorption process. Filter aids formulation promises a huge amount of adsorption capacity by having longer period breakthrough points at which filter aids start to be saturated. It can be concluded that PreChar20:80 results in the highest adsorption capacity at all three different flow rates with 0.437 mg/g, 2.353 mg/g and 11.031 mg/g respectively. In this regard, PreChar20:80 has the potential to be an alternative material for activated carbon in the fabric filter application.