Silvia Álvarez

Adsorption of Carbamazepine in Fixed Bed Columns: Experimental and Modeling Studies

The adsorption of carbamazepine was evaluated on activated carbon in fixed bed columns. The effect of various parameters on breakthrough curves like carbamazepine initial concentrations (1.2, 1.6, and 2.5 mg/L), bed depths (0.4, 0.6, and 0.8 cm) and volumetric flow rates (1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 mL/min) was investigated. The breakthrough time increased with increase of bed depth, and decreased with increase of initial concentration and volumetric flow rate. In order to predict the theoretical breakthrough curves and to determine model parameters, BDST, Thomas, Yoon-Nelson and Clark models were applied to the experimental adsorption processes under the operational conditions described above. The Thomas and Yoon-Nelson models were in good agreement with the experimental data.