Comparison of fixed and fluidized activated carbon beds for removal of organic vapors

Abstract

Activated carbons are commonly used for removal of organic vapors from exhaust air streams. Two configurations, including fixed and fluidized carbon beds are usually employed in industry to meet various requirements of the industrial process which is being used. This paper investigates the performance of such configurations and provides a comparative analysis. It was found that for thin carbon layers, the fixed bed performs more efficiently with the difference exceeding 15 % for the layers with the thickness less than 15 mm. This difference is decreasing with increase of the layer thickness and becomes less than 5 % for the beds thicker than 100 mm. Considering various advantages of the fluidized beds over fixed beds, including lower resistance to the gas flow, excellent gas distribution and minimal possibility of clogging in case of existence of alien particles in the gas, they are recommended for use with the minimal thickness of the layer to be larger than 100 mm.