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%.

An elevated temperature is expected at the deep geological repository (DGR) due to the decay heat from spent nuclear fuel and the positive geothermal gradient. The resulting elevated temperature would change the aqueous speciation and surface complexation of uranium, which is the major component in spent nuclear fuel. Since sorption reactions of uranium species on natural minerals determine the extent of uranium retardation, in this work the temperature-dependent adsorption of hexavalent uranium, U(VI), was studied by choosing alumina as the basic component mineral for complex aluminosilicates. Time-resolved laser fluorescence spectroscopy (TRLFS) was used to assess the dissolved and adsorbed U(VI) species on γ-Alumina in the pH range of 6.5–9.0 at temperatures of 25 to 70°C. Initial concentrations of U(VI), carbonate and calcium were 89 μM, 25 mM, and 3.0 mM, respectively. The parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) was used for chemical speciation by spectrum deconvolution. In addition, a separate solution system with higher U(VI) concentrations (0.1 mM, 1.0 mM) and carbonate concentration of 25 mM was studied with attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy for adsorbed species at 25°C. The electrophoretic mobility measurements were also conducted at 25°C to assess the coordination mechanism of adsorbed species at 25°C. The uranyl hydrolysis species and uranyl tricarbonato species coexist in solution at 25°C. At the same temperature, both species were found to be adsorbed. ATR-FTIR could confirm the adsorption of uranyl tricarbonato species at 25°C, and the electrophoretic mobility measurements suggested that the reaction mechanism is an inner-sphere coordination. However, in comparison with aqueous speciation at 25°C, at elevated temperatures the available pH range of uranyl tricarbonato species was narrow and that for uranyl hydrolysis species was wider. It was evident that two hydrolysis species are adsorbed at elevated temperatures, but no tricarbonato species. The enhanced U(VI) adsorption was observed with temperatures. This could result from the transition of dominance from the concurrent adsorption of uranyl hydrolysis species and uranyl tricarbonato species to two hydrolysis species. It was seen that the trend of enthalpy of adsorption was endothermic. Combining the present results with temperature-dependent adsorption studies on silica and aluminosilicates, a reliable SCM for the subsurface system can be proposed to explain U(VI) migration.

In this study, the physicochemical characteristics and fluoride adsorption capacity of the bone char pyrolyzed at different temperatures; 200℃, 300℃, 350℃, 400℃, 500℃, 600℃, and 700℃ were investigated. Analytical studies of the synthesized bone char including; SEM-EDS, XRD, BET and FT-IR, showed the presence of hydroxyapatite(HAP), which is the main substance that adsorbs fluoride from aqueous solutions containing high fluoride concentrations. Bone char pyrolyzed from 350∼700℃ specifically revealed that, the lower the temperature, the higher the fluoride adsorption capacity and vice versa. The loss of the fluoride adsorption function of HAP (OH- band in the FTIR analysis) was interpreted as the main reason behind this inverse correlation between temperature and fluoride adsorption. Bone char produced at 350°C hence exhibited a fluoride adsorption capacity of 10.56 mgF/g, resulting in significantly higher adsorption compared to previous studies.

To develop flexible adsorbents for compact volatile organic compound (VOC) air purifiers, flexible as-spun zeolite fibers are prepared by an electrospinning method, and then zeolite particles are exposed as active sites for VOC (toluene) adsorption on the surface of the fibers by a thermal surface partial etching process. The breakthrough curves for the adsorption and temperature programmed desorption (TPD) curves of toluene over the flexible zeolite fibers is investigated as a function of the thermal etching temperature by gas chromatography (GC), and the adsorption/desorption characteristics improves with an increase in the thermal surface etching temperature. The effect of acidity on the flexible zeolite fibers for the removal of toluene is investigated as a function of the SiO2/Al2O3 ratios of zeolites. The acidity of the flexible zeolite fibers with different SiO2/Al2O3 ratios is measured by ammonia-temperature-programmed desorption (NH3-TPD), and the adsorption/desorption characteristics are investigated by GC. The results of the toluene adsorption/desorption experiments confirm that a higher SiO2/ Al2O3 ratio of the flexible zeolite fibers creates a better toluene adsorption/desorption performance.

Adsorption technology can effectively handle the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from waste gas. However the adsorption of VOCs at elevated temperature (>30oC) and high humidity conditions results in competitive adsorption between VOCs and the moisture. Furthermore, physical adsorption at an elevated temperature is the cause of degradation in the regeneration process performance. In this study, toluene as waste organic solvent in air at elevated temperature and high humidity was used to measure performance. The effects of the SiO2/Al2O3 ratio of zeolites, the adsorbent material coated on adsorption regenerative rotors, on the adsorption performance of toluene with respect to temperature (30~50oC) and relative humidity (50~90%RH) have been investigated. The adsorption of toluene decreased as relative humidity and adsorption temperature rose. The result shows that Htype ZSM5 (SiO2/Al2O3=100) zeolite exhibited the highest adsorption capacity for toluene at elevated temperature and humidity conditions. The physical and chemical adsorption of toluene on acid sites of zeolite were confirmed by this study.

Adsorption and desorption characteristics of methyl iodide at high temperature conditions up to 250℃ by TEDA-impregnated activated carbon, which is used for radioiodine retention in nuclear facility, was experimentally evaluated. In the range of temperature from 30℃ to 250℃, the adsorption capacity of base activated carbon decreased sharply with increasing temperature but that of TEDA-impregnated activated carbon showed higher value even at high temperature ranges. Especially, the desorption amount of methyl iodide on TEDA-impregnated carbon represented lower value than that on unimpregnated carbon. The breakthrough curves of methyl iodide in the fixed bed packed with base carbon and TEDA-impregnated activated carbon at high temperature were compared. TEDA-impregnated activated carbon would be applicable to adsorption process up to 150℃ for the removal of radioiodine in a nuclear facility.

비정질 실리콘 박막 위에 구리용액을 스콘코팅하여 구리이온을 흡착시킨 후 이를 표면 핵생성 site로 이용하는 새로운 저온 결정화 방법에 관하여 연구하였다. 구리 흡착으로 LPCVD비정질 실리콘 박막의 결정화온도를 500˚C까지 낮출 수 있었고 결정화시간도 크게 단축되었다. 530-600˚C에서 어닐링시 구리가 흡착된 비정질 실리콘 막은 나뭇가지 형태의 fractal을 이루며 결정화되었다. 이때 fractal크기는 구리용액의 농도에 따라 30-300μm로 성장하였다. Fractal의 내부는 새 털 모양의 타원형 결정립으로 구성되어 있으며 TEM 에 의한 최종 결정립의 크기는 0.3-0.4μm로 intrinsic 비정질 실리콘 박막을 600˚C에서 어닐링하였을 때화 크기가 비슷하였다. 구리용액의 농도 증가에 따라 핵생성 활성화 에너지와 결정성장 활성화 에너지가 감소하였다. 결과적으로 구리 흡착이 표면에서 우선 핵생성 site를 증가시키고 핵생성 및 fractal 성장에 필요한 활성화 에너지를 모두 낮추어 저온에서도 결정화가 촉진되었음을 알 수 있었다.

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.

휘발성 유기화합물(VOCs)은 유기용매를 주로 사용하는 산업공정에서 배출되는 일반적인 대기오염물질 중 하나로 그 물질 자체가 독성 및 발암성을 지니기도 하고 오존 생성의 전구체로 작용하기도 하여 인체 건강과 환경에 부정적인 영향을 주고 있다. 또한 최근 초미세먼지 2차생성에 기여하고 있음이 알려짐에 따라 VOCs 저감에 대한 국제적인 관심은 더욱 높아지고 있는 실정이다. 중소규모 사업장에서는 VOCs 처리를 위해 주로 활성탄 흡착탑을 이용하고 있으며 활성탄의 짧은 파과점으로 일정기간 사용 후 교체가 필요하지만, 교체 비용 부담에 따른 적절한 유지관리가 미흡하여 VOCs가 직접 대기로 방출되는 문제가 발생되고 있다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 활성탄 파과 후 현장에서 재생이 가능한 흡탈착 공정에 대하여 연구를 수행하였다. 기존 재생 공정인 열탈착(TSA) 공정은 에너지 비용이 많이 소요되며 수분 또는 고온 가스를 사용해야하므로 재생 시간이 길고 부대시설이 필요한 단점이 있어 현장에서 흡착 후 직접 재생하기에는 다소 무리가 따른다. 저온 감압탈착(VSA) 공정은 상대적으로 저온(80∼90℃)에서 진공펌프를 이용하여 탈착하는 방식으로 감압시에 VOCs가 휘발하는 온도가 낮아지므로 상대적으로 낮은 온도에서 탈착이 가능하다. 이에 따라 현장에서 자체재생 가능한 탈착 방법으로 저온 VSA 기술을 적용하였으며, 30 CMM급 흡탈착 시스템을 제작하여 실제 도장 공장의 배출가스에 대한 현장 적용성 연구를 수행하였다. 또한 저온 VSA 공정을 통해 배출되는 탈착가스는 재생시 캐리어가스 유량이 상대적으로 적어 고농도로 배출되므로 회수하여 유기용매로 재활용할 경우 원료 절감에 따른 경제적 효과가 매우 크다. 따라서 VOCs를 회수하기 위한 방법으로 기액 접촉 효율이 높은 용매 직접접촉식 응축 방식을 적용하였으며, 30 LPM 직접접촉식 회수장치를 제작하고 실 탈착가스를 이용한 회수실험을 수행함으로써 본 기술에 대한 현장 적용 가능성에 대하여 평가해보고자 하였다.

The purposes of this paper were to monitor the temperature rising courses and spark discharge of the modified granular activated carbon (GAC) by microwave (MW) irradiation and to evaluate absorption of benzene. The GAC coated on SiO2, boron, talc, ferrite was named as the modified GAC. Thermal and spark discharge measurement of virgin GAC and modifed GAC has been carried out using a MW device operating at 2450 MHz under various energy conditions. The results of this paper as follows. First, the modified GAC is more efficient than the virgin GAC in temperature control. Temperature gradient of the modified GAC is more lower than that of virgin GAC. The temperature gradient of GAC was observed in the following order : virgin GAC, Mn-Zn ferrite/GAC, Ni-Zn ferrite,/GAC, SiO2/GAC, Boron/GAC, Talc/GAC. Second, the spark discharge of the modified GAC was diminished, compared with that of virgin GAC. Because of its excellent electrical insulating properties, the coating material prevents the spark discharge. Finally, the benzene adsorption capacity of the modified GAC decreased due to diminishing of adsorption site by the coating material. Considering the temperature gradient and spark discharge of GAC, the GAC coated SiO2 would be appropriate absorbent under irradiation of MW.