Adsorption of Tetrahydrofuran + Water Solution Mixtures by Zeolite 4A in a Fixed Bed

The adsorption of a tetrahydrofuran + water mixture on zeolite 4A was carried out using a fixed bed. The equilibrium behavior was shown to fit the Langmuir isotherm. A homogeneous surface diffusion model (HSDM) was proposed to predict the adsorption breakthrough curves in the fixed bed with respect to different temperatures, initial concentrations, and feed flow rates. The experimental results on the adsorption of the tetrahydrofuran + water mixture on zeolite 4A columns proved that the HSDM can predict the column performance satisfactorily and, therefore, can be used in the design of a fixed bed.