Load variations buffering by adsorption/desorption experiments and modelling: innovative application to aqueous effluents

Overview & Synopsis

Industrial activities generate a large variety of contaminated effluents which require an appropriate treatment before being released into the environment. Due to the unsteady-state nature of industrial processes, variations of effluents charge with time (flow and/or concentrations) are very often encountered. Generally, they negatively impact running forthcoming treatments, with risks of leading to non-respect of discharge norms. In order to avoid this, buffering of wastewater treatment is generally achieved by equalization basins. Although they assure the regulation of effluent fluctuations, their setting-up exhibits major disadvantages (occupation, odor, cost…). In this context, an alternative solution could be to set up a column of adsorbent, prior to treatment as a buffer/equalizer unit. This buffering strategy, first proposed by Ottengraf (1986), is based on the reversible feature of adsorption.