Removing Chlorobenzene via the Synergistic Effects of Adsorption and Catalytic Oxidation over Activated Carbon Fiber Loaded with Transition Metal Oxides

Abstract

This study focused on the elimination of chlorobenzene by dual adsorption/catalytic oxidation over activated carbon fibers (ACFs) loaded with transition metal oxides (TMOs). The TMOs were successfully loaded on the ACFs by the incipient wetness impregnation method, which has the advantages of easy preparation, low cost, and size uniformity. The removal effects for chlorobenzene (CB) were investigated on pristine ACFs and TMOs@ACFs in a fix-bed reactor. The adsorption/catalytic oxidation experiments result demonstrated that ACFs can be used as a very efficient adsorbent for the removal of low-concentration CB at the low temperature of 120 °C; the breakthrough time of CB over pristine ACFs can reach 15 h at an inlet concentration of 5000 ppmv and space velocity of 20,000 h⁻¹. As the bed temperature rose above 175 °C, the CB removal mainly contributed to the catalytic oxidation of MnO₂; a preferable CB removal ratio was achieved at higher temperatures in the presence of more MnO₂. Therefore, CB can be effectively removed by the dual adsorbent/catalyst of MnO₂@ACF at the full temperature range below 300 °C.