Kinetic modeling of hydrocarbon adsorbers for gasoline and ethanol fuels

Adsorption-desorption kinetic model for hydrocarbons on zeolites is developed for ethanol and gasoline fuels using representative hydrocarbons (ethanol, toluene, i-octane and acetaldehyde). Individual experiments (with a predominant isothermal adsorption phase followed by isothermal desorption and then a temperature programmed desorption, TPD) were performed for each hydrocarbon and a Langmuir isotherm was generated to represent the equilibrium data. A first order kinetic model for adsorption and desorption for various hydrocarbons was developed. The kinetic model is able to predict the experimental data very well. The applicability of the kinetic models obtained using the individual hydrocarbon experiments is evaluated for experiments performed with a mixture of hydrocarbons. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.