Absorption of Hydrophobic Volatile Organic Compounds by a Cross-Flow Rotating Packed Bed

Capture of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emission by absorption has been a popular and efficient treatment. However, because of the low solubility of hydrophobic VOCs in water, a non-aqueous absorbent may be needed to make the well-known absorption a feasible process. Nevertheless, most of these potential absorbents are of high viscosities, resulting in uneven flow pattern and low mass transfer performance. Therefore, a cross-flow rotating packed bed (RPB) was evaluated for its potential applicability of absorption of typical hydrophobic VOCs, xylene and toluene, by silicon oil, a model hydrophobic absorbent. The result showed that the absorption percentage could be up to 97% within a contact time of less than a second. Furthermore, a cross-flow RPB’s correlation based on this research and the data in literatures was also obtained, applicable to both hydrophobic and hydrophilic absorbents together with wide range of VOCs.