The influence of activated carbon fiber paper structure on adsorption performance of cyclohexane

Activated carbon fibers paper (ACFP), made through wet-laid technology, had exhibited promising adsorption performance compared with granular and powdered activated carbon. This study prepared activated carbon fibers papers with different fibrous structures and investigated the dynamic adsorption performance of thin-layered ACFP against cyclohexane gas. The effects of inter-fiber pore size, dilution degree of activated carbon fibers, and porosity of the paper sheet on the adsorption performance were explored. The Bed Depth Service Time (BDST) model was employed for fitting and calculation, and the Flowdict module in Geodict software was used to analyze the flow field within the paper sheet. The results indicated that the inter-fiber pore size variation of ACFP had no significant effect on its adsorption breakthrough curve against cyclohexane gas. However, as the dilution degree of activated carbon fibers in the ACFP increased, the breakthrough time prolonged, and the adsorption utilization efficiency of activated carbon fibers continuously improved. Furthermore, decrease of ACFP porosity significantly impaired the adsorption performance. When the porosity decreased from 95.4 % to 91.4 %, the breakthrough adsorption capacity decreased from 134 mg/g to 95 mg/g, and the critical bed thickness increased from 0.029 cm to 0.044 cm.