Preliminary Study on the Application of Temperature Swing Adsorption in Aqueous Phase for Pesticide Removal

Abstract

Temperature swing adsorption (TSA) is a well-established process for gas purification. In this work, the feasibility of TSA in aqueous phase was studied. This concept could enable in situ adsorbent regeneration and thus fostering sustainable decentralized adsorption processes applied to water treatment. The adsorption processes with the use of granular activated carbon (GAC) have been widely applied to remove the residual amounts of pesticides in water treatment. Amitrole was chosen as a typical pesticide in this study, GAC was selected as the main adsorbent for amitrole removal. Adsorption isotherm experiments were conducted at different temperatures of 20°C, 57°C and 94°C to identify the most appropriate sorptive – sorbent system for dynamic adsorption and TSA research. Once the isotherm experiments were accomplished, breakthrough curve experiments were subsequently investigated. Finally, TSA process was conducted with the activated carbon regeneration at the elevated temperature of 125°C. Consequently, initial obtained results proved the feasibility of the proposed TSA technique for pesticide removal in aqueous phase.