Mathematical Modelling of Adsorption

Abstract

The selection of a particular model to solve a problem is given by the nature of the system (i.e. what phenomenon is actually more important than the other), the acceptable complexity of the equations to represent it, and the computing resources available to find a solution (which are inversely proportional to the time the engineer needs to wait to get the result). These points determine what are the necessary assumptions to be made to develop a mathematical model. For the model development a study of what are the relationships and factors involved in the adsorption process has been made. Once different models have been developed with the help of mathematical software, a computational simulation was made to verify to verify whether they conform to reality. Due to the differential nature of the adsorption processes, it has been resorted to numerical methods to develop the necessary software required for the simulation. The verification of the adjustment to the reality of each of the models developed in this work has been done by comparing the profiles of concentrations and temperatures that can be obtained from the simulation of a determined column.