Breakthrough curve analysis by simplistic models of fixed bed adsorption: In defense of the century-old Bohart-Adams model

In the water and wastewater treatment field several simplistic models of packed bed dynamics such as the Bohart-Adams, Thomas, and Yoon-Nelson models are frequently used by investigators to fit adsorption breakthrough data. The century-old Bohart-Adams model is arguably the best known one which also serves as the foundation of the bed depth-service time equation. In recent years a substantial body of literature on the subject of fixed bed modeling has however claimed that it is inferior to other models. The present paper shows that such claims are incorrect and misleading because of biased comparisons in which the fitting ability of an oversimplified version of the Bohart-Adams model was compared with those of the Thomas and Yoon-Nelson models. The oversimplified Bohart-Adams equation is in effect an exponential function which predicts an exponentially increasing breakthrough value with time. As such, it is unable to fit typical breakthrough curves which are S-shaped or sigmoidal. It can be shown that a proper version of the Bohart-Adams model gives fit quality similar to those of the Thomas and Yoon-Nelson models. This is not unexpected since the three simplistic fixed bed models can be expressed in terms of the logistic equation of population growth; that is, mathematically they are equivalent.