Adsorption Capacity and Desorption Efficiency of Activated Carbon for Odors from Medical Waste.

Five types of odor-emitting exhaust gases from medical waste were selected, and their adsorption capacity and desorption efficiency were investigated using activated carbon. The selected gases included polar gases (hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) and ammonia (NH₃)) and non-polar gases (acetaldehyde (AA), methyl mercaptan (MM), and trimethylamine (TMA))). Commercial activated carbon with a specific surface area of 2276 m²/g was used as the adsorbent. For the removal of odor from medical waste, we investigated: (1) the effective adsorption capacity of a single gas (<1 ppm), (2) the effect of the adsorbed NH₃ gas concentration and flow rate, and (3) the desorption rate using NH₃ gas. The values of the effective adsorption capacity of the single gas were in the following order: H₂S < NH₃ < AA < MM < TMA, at 0.2, 4.2, 6.3, 6.6, and 35.7 mg/g, respectively. The results indicate that polar gases have a lower effective adsorption capacity than that of non-polar gases, and that the size of the gas molecules and effective adsorption capacity exhibit a proportional relationship. The effective adsorption performance of NH₃ gas showed an increasing trend with NH₃ concentration. Therefore, securing optimal conditions for adsorption/desorption is imperative for the highly efficient removal of odor from medical waste. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]