In this study, the low-temperature vacuum swing adsorption (low temp. VSA) process was applied to the activated carbon adsorption tower for treatment of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to extend the replacement period of the adsorbent and to solve the difficulties of operation management. A practical application study was performed based on continuous operation in the field. The VSA process removes the adsorbate by reducing the pressure at a relatively low temperature (90℃ or less) to compensate for the disadvantages of the conventional thermal swing adsorption (TSA) process. A pilot scale VSA process with a size of 30 m and 2 min−1 was applied to the small scale painting plant, which is the main source of VOCs, and subject to 100 adsorption/desorption cycles. After the sampling of activated carbon every 20 cycles, the specific surface area and derivative thermogravimetric analysis (DTA) analysis were investigated to analyze the change of activated carbon characteristics with increasing cycles. During 100 continuous cycles, toluene gas was arbitrarily supplied to the pilot VSA process to compare toluene adsorption capacity with respect to raw activated carbon. More than 99% of the VOCs emitted from the paint plant were adsorbed and removed during the operation of the VSA process. The increase in cycle did not affect the specific surface area and micropores of activated carbon. However, the physical adsorption amount of the non-desorbed adsorbate remaining in the micropores tends to increase; therefore, it is considered that the effective adsorption amount decreases as the number of regeneration increases. As a result of the toluene adsorption test of the pilot plant after 100 consecutive cycles, 91% removal efficiency relative to the raw activated carbon was maintained. Thus, stable application of low-temperature VSA equipment is feasible in field application.

Abstract
 I. 서 론
 II. 연구 방법
  1. 현장 설치사이트의 휘발성 유기화합물 배출 특성
  2. 파일럿 설비 및 흡탈착 연속운전
  3. 활성탄 특성 분석
  4. 연속운전 후 파일럿 VSA 설비의 톨루엔 흡탈착 실험
 III. 결과 및 고찰
  1. 파일럿 설비의 휘발성 유기화합물 흡착 특성
  2. 파일럿 설비의 흡탈착 연속운전에 따른 재생활성탄특성 변화
  3. 100회 연속운전 후 파일럿 설비에 대한 톨루엔 흡착특성
 IV. 결 론
 References

• 전미진(한국산업기술시험원 환경융합기술센터, 서울시립대학교 환경공학과) | Mi-Jin Jeon (Environmental Convergence Technology Center, Korea Testing Laboratory, School of Environment Engineering, University of Seoul)
• 전용우(한국산업기술시험원 환경융합기술센터) | Yong-woo Jeon (Environmental Convergence Technology Center, Korea Testing Laboratory) Corresponding author