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Ground water contaminated with trichloroethylene (TCE) used in electronic, electric, dry cleaning and the like industries is often treated by air-stripping. In this treatment process, TCE in its vapor form is stripped from ground water by air stream and sometimes emitted into the atmosphere without any additional treatments. Activated carbon adsorption is one of the practical and useful processes for recovering the TCE vapor from the exhaust air stream. However, adsorption of the TCE vapor from the stripping air stream onto activated carbons is not so simple as that from dry air, since in the exhaust air stream the TCE vapor coexists with water vapor with relatively high concentrations. The understanding of the adsorption characteristics of the TCE vapor to be adsorbed on activated carbon in the water vapor-coexisting system is essential for successfully designing and operating the TCE recovery process. In this work, the adsorption equilibrium relations of the TCE vapor adsorption on activated carbons were elucidated as a function of various relative humidity. Activated carbon fibers (ACFs) were used as model activated carbon. The adsorption equilibrium relations were studied by the column adsorption method. The adsorption isotherms of TCE vapor adsorbed on sample ACFs were successfully correlated by the Dubinin-Radushkevich equation for both cases with and without coexistent water vapor. No effects of coexistent water vapor were found on the limiting adsorption volume. However, the adsorption characteristic energy was significantly reduced by the coexistence of water vapor and its reduction was successfully correlated with the equilibrium amount of water vapor adsorbed under the dynamic condition.

The preparation, characterization and ammonia and water adsorption properties of edge-rich carbon nanofibers (CNFs) were studied, including platelet CNFs (PCNFs) and cup-stacked CNFs (CSCNFs). Since PCNFs and CSCNFs have many chemically active exposed edges, functionalization by oxidizing the edges was carried out by ozone stream and by nitric acid. Transmission electron microscopy, N adsorption isotherms and temperature-programmed desorption analysis showed that the nitric acid treatment partly destroyed the graphite structure of the PCNFs and created acid functional groups and micropores, whereas the ozone treatment created functional groups without damaging the structure. Ammonia adsorption isotherms clarified that NH adsorption on PCNFs and CSCNFs occurred mainly on oxygen-containing groups, whereas the adsorption on activated carbon fibers (ACFs) occurred on both oxygen-containing groups and the carbon surface without the functional groups, and the CSCNFs showed larger amounts of adsorbed ammonia compared to the PCNFs. Especially at a relatively low pressure range (<0.2 atm), the PCNFs/CSCNFs/ACFs showed the same ammonia adsorption mechanism; that is, the one-to-one interaction between oxygen atoms in the functional groups and hydrogen atoms in ammonia molecules. In addition, the adsorption on the ACFs appeared to occur mainly by interaction with the carbon surface at relatively high pressure (0.3-1.0 atm). Our experimental results and previous findings suggest that NH adsorption on PCNFs is due mainly to NH...O hydrogen bonding between oxygen-containing groups and ammonia rather than to chemical bonding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We have developed activated carbon membranes (ACM) that can remove not only particulate matters but also dissolved organic matters. Recently, we succeeded in growing carbon whiskers on activated carbon membranes (W-ACM). We hypothesize that the whiskers prevent the flux from lowering due to particle blocking on the membrane surface. In this study, we compared the filtration properties and blocking characteristics of ACM and W-ACM using an artificial microsphere (polymethyl methacrylate) (PMMA), particle diameter=0.8, 5, and 10μm) to estimate the effect of whiskers on particle filtration. We found that the whiskers successfully prevented a reduction of penetration flux in all particle diameters; however, the prevention mechanism seems to be different according to the filtrated particle size. To clarify the mechanism, we performed numerical model analysis using a microfiltration model. In the case of 0.8μm particle filtration, whiskers seemed to inhibit the packing of particles into the microholes existing at the surface of activated carbon membrane, and with 5–10μm particle filtration, the packing density of the cake layer accumulated on the membrane would be reduced with the appearance of whiskers. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A novel composite membrane consisting of an activated carbon membrane with filamentous carbon, applicable to water treatment, was fabricated by a combination of conventional carbonization and thermal deposition. The carbonization was performed after dipping a ceramic support in a latex polymer followed by the application of ferric sulfate [Fe2(SO4)3·nH2O] catalyst. This was followed by CVD from methane at 1050–1100 °C. The resulting membrane therefore consisted of a filamentous carbon layer grown with a combination of the catalyst and deposited hydrocarbon, and an activated carbon layer on a ceramic support. These structural characteristics were confirmed by means of the cut-off of dextran molecules, the pure water permeability, SEM, and the adsorption of phenol. Water treatment experiments using phenol and poly(methyl methacrylate) as model pollutants indicated that this membrane was able to remove dissolved organics of low molecular weight and suspended solids. Also, the filamentous carbon layer successfully prevented the fine particles from sticking on the external surface of the membrane by frequent back washing. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A novel bioethanol separation process was proposed in this study employing molecular sieving carbon (MSC) as an adsorbent, whose pore diameter is close to molecular size of ethanol. In the proposed process, fermentation broth is first introduced to the adsorption bed packed with MSC. In this step, ethanol is selectively adsorbed onto MSC, with highly enriching ethanol in the micropore of MSC. Subsequently, the concentrated ethanol is desorbed from MSC to gaseous phase, resulting in further purification of ethanol owing to a considerable difference in desorption rate between water and ethanol; Because of molecular sieving effect of MSC, the desorption rate of ethanol is much smaller than that of water. To establish this process, adsorption equilibrium and kinetics of ethanol on various MSCs were investigated in aqueous phase as the first step. Also, desorption kinetics of ethanol and water in gaseous phase were investigated. As a result, it was suggested that highly concentrated ethanol could be obtained with high recovery ratio through these simple operations, meaning the proposed process is quite promising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through fine tuning of synthesis conditions, we successfully synthesized three types of carbon nanofiber (CNF) (herring-bone carbon nanofiber, platelet carbon nanofiber, and cup-stacked carbon nanofiber) by the thermal decomposition of a mixture of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and nickel chloride (NiCl2). A series of experimental results demonstrated that the key factors for the selective synthesis of these CNFs were the (1) NiCl2/PEG ratio, (2) drying time of the polymeric mixture, (3) state of PEG (liquid or solid) before temperature rising, and (4) temperature profile during the thermal decomposition. Changes in these conditions contributed to the formation of Ni catalyst particles from the catalyst NiCl2 with different morphology, thereby resulting in the growth of different types of CNF or amorphous carbon products according to the catalyst particle’s shape. Also, we found that the mechanism of CNF growth in this synthesis method was fundamentally the same as that in chemical vapor deposition (CVD). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]