What laboratory results don’t tell us about adsorption performance in practice
Highlights
- Lab analyses are essential for understanding the characteristics and performance of activated carbon. They also provide a basis for comparison when selecting products.
- However, these analyses do not provide a conclusive guarantee of performance in practice, given the variable conditions and the multi-component system.
Laboratory analyses provide the necessary insights into the properties of activated carbon and allow the associated performance to be understood. They can also be used to compare different types and qualities of activated carbon and to choose the right type for specific applications.
Nevertheless, these results do not provide a 100% guarantee of how activated carbon will perform in practice.
Laboratory versus practice
In a laboratory adsorption tests are always carried out under controlled conditions. Parameters such as composition of the influent, temperature, pressure and contact time are kept constant.
In industrial applications this is rarely the case. In practice the situation is much more complex, with varying conditions (temperature, flow rate, pressure, etc.) and a mixture of different pollutants with constantly fluctuating compositions (a so-called ‘multi-component system’). In such a system different molecules interact in a specific way with the surface of the activated carbon. This leads to competition between molecules to adsorb on specific locations on the carbon, i.e. the so-called ‘active sites’. Furthermore, molecules can also influence one another through lateral interactions: they can attract or repel each other, which will further affect the adsorption mechanism.
In short, lab results certainly give an indication of the quality and potential of activated carbon, but they do not always reflect the actual performance in practice.
Cargen is aware of these limitations. Product selection and recommendations are therefore not only based on lab results, but also on practical data. We analyse complex pollutant loads, loading rates and service lives, and use these insights to offer a customer-oriented solution that truly works in practice.
Conclusion
Lab analyses are very valuable and even essential for estimating the potential performance of activated carbon. However, they do not always reflect the complex reality of the industrial applications in which activated carbon is used. Practical data are therefore crucial to supplement lab results and thus guarantee reliable and effective solutions.
