Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from industrial gas cause equipment failure and fire accidents due to the rapid flow and concentration changes of VOCs. Therefore, it is crucial to attenuate the concentration of VOCs to ensure a constant emission rate before the control process. This study proposed an encapsulation technique to fabricate calcium- alginate gel beads containing paraffin oil as an effective absorbent. The prepared absorbent was physically characterized, and a column test observed its absorption capacity. When the oil content was 30%, the prepared beads showed the best spherical shape, attaining 96% emulsion stability, 0.014 sphericity factor, 62.7% weight variation ratio, and 4.21 ± 0.06mm diameter. In the column test that was packed with the prepared beads, the toluene absorption capacity was 497.6mg/kg. The net effect of the beads was to attenuate the peaks of toluene concentration, and to make the VOC-laden air stream more receptive for the subsequent treatment unit.
n-Nonane, 1¸2¸4-trimethylbenzene (124-TMB), toluene, total xylene (TXYL), isopropyl alcohol (IPA), and methyl ethyl alcohol (MEK) are major volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from printing industries. The absorption amount of a single VOC per unit weight of silicone oil was as follows in the order of 189.5 g/kg-silicone oil for n-nonane, 91.7 g/kg-silicone oil for 124-TMB, and 60.1 g/kg-silicone oil for TXYL. Although hydrophobic VOCs were more absorbed in silicone oil than hydrophilic VOCs such as IPA and MEK, IPA and MEK, which had log Kow values of 1 or less, also were absorbed more than 26.0 g/kg-silicone oil. In two and three mixed VOCs of n-nonane, 124-TMB, and toluene, the absorption amount of each in silicon oil was less than that of single a VOC. The total absorption amount of two mixed VOCs ranged from 47.9 g to 138.7 g/kg-silicone oil, and the total absorption amount of three mixed VOCs was 65.8 g/kg-silicone oil. These results suggest that silicone oil is a promising pretreatment solution capable of absorbing high concentrations of VOCs that are intermittently emitted from printing industries. The absorption information of VOCs obtained in this study can be used as the design parameters of a damping device for the pretreatment of VOCs.
Carbon/epoxy woven composites are prominent wear-resistant materials due to the strength, stiffness, and thermal conductivity of carbon fabric. In this study, the effect of oilabsorption on the wear behaviors of carbon/epoxy woven composites was investigated. Wear tests were performed on dry and fully oil-absorbed carbon/epoxy woven composites. The worn surfaces of the test specimens were examined via scanning electron microscopy to investigate the wear mechanisms of oil-absorbed carbon/epoxy woven composites. It was found that the oil absorption rate was 0.14% when the carbon/epoxy woven composites were fully saturated. In addition, the wear properties of the carbon/epoxy woven composites were found to be affected by oilabsorption. Specifically, the friction coefficients of dry and oil-absorbed carbon/epoxy woven composites were 0.25-0.30 and 0.55-0.6, respectively. The wear loss of the oilabsorbed carbon/epoxy woven composites was 3.52×10-2 cm3, while that of the dry carbon/epoxy woven composites was 3.52×10-2 cm3. SEM results revealed that the higher friction coefficient and wear loss of the oil-absorbed carbon/epoxy woven composites can be attributed to the existence of broken and randomly dispersed fibers due to the weak adhesion forces between the carbon fibers and the epoxy matrix.