Benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes are commonly known as (BTEX) and include volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in ambient air. Exposure to some BTEX has been associated with health risks. This study aimed to reduce BTEX on the environment and human health dramatically. This research targeted decreasing the BTEX in an air environment by producing high surface area activated carbon (KA-AC) under optimized synthesis conditions from Ricinus communis as lignocellulosic waste using ZnCl2 solution, respectively. The influence of several activation parameters was investigated on the surface area, such as impregnation ratio, carbonization time, and carbonization temperature. The KA5-AC prepared under optimized conditions showed BET surface area and total pore volume of 1225 m2/ g, and 0.72 cm3/ g, respectively. The optimized synthesis conditions were as follows: 0.1, 0.5, 1, 2, and 5 M impregnation ratio, 450–950 °C carbonization temperature, and 100 min carbonization time. The characteristics of the optimized KA-AC were analyzed using nitrogen adsorption–desorption isotherm, scanning electron microscopy, and pore structural analysis. The results confirmed that the VOCs adsorption on KA-AC followed a monolayer adsorption isotherm over a homogeneous adsorbent surface. It showed the removal efficiency of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and m, p-xylene (R2 = from 0.991 to 0.997). Moreover, the KA-AC exhibited good performance without considerable loss of efficacy throughout the experiments. Accordingly, it is concluded that developing low-cost activated carbon to use BTEX vapor adsorption research could be practical and developments to overcome for utilization in air pollution control.

Quality standards of activated carbon for gas-phase applications have been deleted from the Korean national standard list since 2007, and the iodine adsorption test is the only measure currently used for quality assurance. This study was performed to propose a suitable test method and a quality standard for gas-phase activated carbon. The "1/2 saturated vapor adsorption" test has been developed as a simple and convenient method to determine the adsorption capacity of activated carbon. In this study, the developed test method was evaluated using model VOCs including toluene, methyl ethyl ketone (MEK), and ethyl acetate (EA). A virgin activated carbon revealed adsorption capacities of 344mg/g, 322mg/g, and 328mg/g for toluene, EA, and MEK, respectively, and the adsorption capacity for a mixture of the three VOCs was 334 mg/g. When a regenerated activated carbon was applied, the adsorption capacities dramatically decreased to 62 mg/g, 52 mg/g, and 61 mg/ g for toluene, EA, and MEK, respectively. In addition, the 1/2 solvent vapor adsorption tests using 13 different specimens of activated carbon showed that their capacities were closely related to the iodine adsorption numbers, and this study suggested the adsorption capacity of 300 mg/g as a new quality standard. The novel test method and its standard may help to guarantee the quality of gas-phase activated carbon used for VOCs abatement processes.

In this study, the adsorption/desorption performance of toluene was evaluated using zeolite adsorbent to replace activated carbon with one-off and ignition characteristics. For the proper operation of the VOCs adsorption/desorption and condensate recovery steps, the operating range by various adsorption/desorption temperatures was selected. The adsorbent is a bead-type zeolite, which was put into an adsorption tower of 10 LPM scale. As a result, it was demonstrated that 0.079 mg/g was adsorbed at a low temperature (20°C) during adsorption. In the case of desorption, it was found that VOCs adsorbed on the adsorbent were completely recovered after the desorption operation at 220°C for about 160 minutes. However, in the heating rate step for desorption, it was not possible to maintain an appropriate heating rate by filling the tower with zeolite. This was complemented by applying a copper plate with high thermal conductivity, and it was shown that the time was shortened by about 10 minutes or more. When VOCs are emitted at high concentrations during the desorption process, they can be reused as energy resources through low-temperature maintenance, and a condensation method was attempted. The efficiency of condensing chiller (cooler) with temperature control and liquid nitrogen condensing was compared. It was found that the chiller condensing efficiency increased as the temperature decreased. In the case of liquid nitrogen condensation, the liquid nitrogen temperature was maintained at -196°C, showing a stable efficiency of 90%.

점토를 이용하여 세 종류의 새로운 형태의 변형된 유기물점토를 제조하였다. Cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC)를 점토에 층간 삽입시켜 OC-CPC를 합성하였고, Aluminium 축을 갖는 Al-PILC 만든 후, cetylpyridinium chloride를 Al-PILC에 삽입시켜 IOC-CPC 화합물을 합성하였다. IR과 TGA를 이용하여 이들 구조를 분석한 결과 층간 삽입반응이 성공적으로 이루어졌음을 확인할 수 있었다. X-ray 회절을 이용하여 층간 거리를 조사하였는데 OC-CPC가 제일 큰 값을 보여 주었다. 층간 구조를 갖는 화합물들은 삽입반응을 이용하여 구조를 변형시킬 수 있으며 이를 통해 층간거리, 표면적, 공간 크기, 화학적 친화성 같은 여러 물리적 성질들을 바꿀 수 있으므로, 본 논문에서는 자연점토를 이용하여 층간 반응을 통해 휘발성 유기화합물의 흡착에 쓰일 수 있는 유용한 유기점토 화합물을 합성하고 이들의 구조를 확인코자 하였다. 벤젠과 톨루엔의 흡착은 IOC-CPC나 Al-PILC에서 보다 OC-CPC에서 더 잘 이루어졌으며, 자연점토에서는 거의 흡착이 일어나지 않았다. OC-CPC 화합물에서는 친 소수성 성질이 크고 층간 거리도 증가했기 때문에 흡착이 잘 일어났다고 볼 수 있으며, 반면에 친수성이 큰 Al-PILC 에서는 벤젠과 톨루엔 같은 휘발성 유기물에 대한 흡착이 상대적으로 적게 일어났다.