Selection of adsorbents for different applications and processes: a review

Adsorption is one of the most sophisticated separation processes widely used in oil, gas and petrochemical facilities, and there is no doubt in the environmental and technological significant of this technology. But, the key to design an efficient adsorption service is to accurately select a suitable adsorbent that strongly dependent to the feed composition, product specification, and operating conditions. During the last 30 years, different classes of solid adsorbent have been manufactured; but, they should be meticulously chosen accordingly. In this paper, the specification and main charac-teristics of adsorbents generally used in oil, gas and petrochemical processes including activated alumina (AA), silica gel (SG), activated carbon (AC) and molecular sieves (MSs) are reviewed. Then, a novel adsorption selection diagram (ASD) is introduced to accurately choose adsorbents for various gas and liquid services. By using the proposed ASD, the suitable adsorbents are selected for some industrial plants to verify its validity.