Toluene is one of the typical index substances of environmental odor. In this study the vaporized toluene was decomposed by peroxide ions which are formed from a newly developed low-temperature plasma generator. The number of ions composed mostly of negative was controlled by electric voltage below 3.0 kV, which could produce the minimum super oxide and ozone. The test plasma generator produced 84.1~560×103 ions/㎤ depending on air velocity. It was found that toluene decomposition rate corresponded proportionally to the plasma intensity. The efficiency with the plasma output, 3.0 kV was 97.5% in a batch process.

In this study, the photocatalytic decomposition characteristics of single toluene, toluene mixed with benzene, toluene mixed with acetone, and toluene mixed methyl mercaptan (MM) by UV reactor installed with TiO2-coated perforated plate were studied. The photocatalytic decomposition rate of single toluene, toluene mixed with benzene, toluene mixed with acetone, and toluene mixed with MM fitted well on Langmuir-Hinshelwood (L-H) kinetics equation. The maximum elimination capacity was obtained to be 628 g/m3·d for single toluene, 499 g/m3·d for toluene mixed with benzene, 318 g/m3·d for toluene mixed with acetone, and 513 g/m3·d for toluene mixed with MM, respectively. The negative effect in photocatalytic decomposition of toluene are found to be in the order of acetone>benzene>MM.

The purpose of this work is to study the adsorption and desorption characteristics of acetone vapor and toluene vapor from adsorption tower in the VOCs recovery device. The six kinds of activated carbon with different pore structures were used and the adsorption and desorption characteristics were compared according to pore structure, desorption temperature, and adsorption method, respectively. Adsorption capacity of acetone vapor and toluene vapor by batch method was higher than that by dynamic method. Especially, activated carbon with medium-sized or large pores had more difference in adsorption capacity according to adsorption methods as a result of gradually condensation of vapors on relatively mesopore and large pores. Activated carbons with relatively large pores and relatively small saturated adsorption capacity had excellent desorption ability.

This study is to investigate the relationship between pore structures of activated carbons and adsorption characteristics of toluene vapor using dynamic adsorption method. The surface areas of below 10Å in the pore diameter of activated carbons used in this experiment were in the range of 72～93％ of total cumulative surface area and the toluene vapor equilibrium adsorption capacities were in the range of 350～390mg/g. Activated carbons having larger toluene adsorption capacity than the compared activated carbons had relatively pores in the pore diameter range of 7～10Å. Linear relationship between equilibrium adsorption capacity and cumulative surface area was in the diameter range of over 7Å. It was thought that toluene vapor was relatively well adsorbed on surfaces of pores of over 7Å.

Adsorption characteristics of toluene vapor, which is one of important source of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), by activated carbon were investigated using a fixed bed adsorption column. The operating parameters such as breakthrough curve, adsorption capacity, mass transfer zone (MTZ), and length of unused bed (LUB) were studied. The experimental results showed that the breakthrough time decreased with increasing inlet toluene concentration and gas flow rate. MTZ and LUB increased with the increase of inlet concentration, gas flow rate, and particle size of activated carbon. The adsorption capacity increased with the increase of inlet toluene concentration, while it decreased with increasing particle size. However, it was kept at constant value regardless of the increase of gas flow rate. Adsorption isotherm of toluene vapor could be represented by the Freundlich adsorption equation fairly well. From the adsorption experiments using some VOC gases such as toluene, xylene, butyl acetate. butanol and acetone, it was also found that the adsorption capacity was higher in the case of gas with higher boiling point and lower vapor pressure.