Adsorption Column Performance Analysis for Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) Emissions Abatement in the Pharma Industry

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are essential for primary pharmaceutical manufacturing. Their permissible emission levels are strictly regulated due to their toxic effects both on human health and the environment. Activated carbon adsorption columns are used in industry to treat VOC gaseous waste streams from industrial plants, but their process efficiency suffers from quick and unpredictable saturation of the adsorbent material. This study presents the application of a validated, non-isothermal, multicomponent adsorption model using the Langmuir Isotherm and the Linear Driving Force model to examine multicomponent VOC mixture breakthrough. Specifically, three binary mixtures (hexane–acetone, hexane–dichloromethane, hexane–toluene) are simulated for four different bed lengths (0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 1 m) and six different superficial velocities (0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.5, 0.7, 0.9 m s−1). Key breakthrough metrics reveal preferential adsorption of acetone and toluene over hexane, and hexane over dichloromethane, as well as breakthrough onset patterns. Temperature peaks are moderate while pressure drops increase for longer column lengths and higher flow rates. A new breakthrough onset metric is introduced, paving the way to improved operating regimes for more efficient industrial VOC capture bed utilisation via altering multicomponent mixture composition, feed flowrate, and column length.