BENCH SCALE STUDIES FOR THE DESTRUCTIVE ADSORPTION OF CCL4 ON CAO PARTICLES

S. Maheshwari¹, K.J. Klabunde² and W.P. Walawender³

Departments of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, 66506, ¹913-532-4323, ²913-532-6849 and ³913 532-5584


ABSTRACT

Destructive adsorption of chlorocarbons on nanoscale calcium oxide particles has been successful in laboratory scale experiments. For effective implementation of nanotechnology, studies are being carried out at the bench scale level for these reactions. For experimental convenience, the reaction between CCl4 and CaO is considered as a representative reaction. The first phase of the work involved the determination of optimum parameters that affect the surface area of the activated particles. The particles were heated under a constant supply of nitrogen. Rate of heating, duration of heating, temperature, flow rate of nitrogen, and particle size were found to be the important factors.

The second phase of the work involves design and fabrication of the reactor assembly system and study of the adsorption reaction. A batch of 50 g of the activated CaO particles can be treated in the fixed-bed reactor. Nitrogen is employed as a carrier gas for the CCl4 vapors. Temperature of reaction, duration of reaction, pressure inside the reactor, surface area of CaO, particle size, and the flow rate of the gas mixture are important parameters that govern the extent of conversion of CaO particles.

KEY WORDS

destructive adsorption, nanotechnology, chlorocarbons

This paper is from the Proceedings of the 10th Annual Conference on Hazardous Waste Research 1995, published in hard copy and on the Web by the Great Plains/Rocky Mountain Hazardous Substance Research Center.