Scale Up of Adsorption Column Experiments

Sorption columns are used to remove contaminants from a flowing fluid in a wide variety of industrial settings. To better understand the sorption process experiments are typically carried out in small columns, of the order 1-15cm. Industrial sorption columns are of the order 1-5m. It is well-known that results from laboratory experiments do not scale-up well and so provide limited information to aid in the design of large equipment. In this report we analyse two standard sorption models, which agree well with data from small-scale experiments, and demonstrate that they cannot qualitatively match data from larger experiments. We then develop a simple mathematical model which extends the earlier work and permits the inclusion of size effects. This sets the scene for subsequent studies into the scale-up process.