Research On Adsorption Of Multi-component VOCs Using Surface Modification Of Granular Activated Carbon

Due to ubiquity in the environment and risk to human health, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) have received great attention in the field of environmental control. The main sources of VOCs is painting, printing, petroleum refining, pharmacy, plastic materials and gum polymer process. Treatment of VOCs is very important and difficult in most actual occasions. Treatment methods of VOCs were also various, including adsorption, condensation, membrane and biochemical method, etc.The adsorption of VOCs onto porous adsorbents, such as activated carbons, has been suggested as an innovative treatment technology. As a result of many investigations, the adsorption capacity of activated carbon depends strongly on its surface microstructure and characteristic. And also the existing of other components can greatly affect the adsorption of VOC. So, in this paper, experiments including single-species and multi-species (ethyl acetate, normal hexane, butanone and trichloromethane) VOCs were conducted to observe the behavior of adsorption onto activated carbon. Further, the modification of activated carbon using sodium diethyl dithiocarbamate (SDDC) or polyethylene glycol (PEG) was done to change the adsorption efficiency of activated carbon towards VOCs. All of these were done to find the affection between different VOCs and determine the feasibility using activated carbon to treat multi-component VOCs. Also, the modification of surface of activated carbon was to observe the effect of surface characteristic to the adsorption of VOCs.