VOC and Water Stripper Off-Gas Control with Polymeric Adsorbents

The reduction of volatile organic compounds (VOC) emissions is a significant goal of environmental legislation such as the 1990 Clean Air Act. Traditionally, the principle medium for separating organic compounds from air or water has been activated carbon, but legislation has placed new demands on adsorbent media that are not being met by activated carbons available today when applied to the control of many VOC emissions. These needs include higher adsorbent capacity, resistance to high humidity, faster desorption kinetics and the ability to be easily and repeatedly regenerated on-site. Commercially available synthetic polymeric adsorbents offer the potential for meeting these needs.

Water Stripper Off-Gas Treatment:  Many solvents, hydrocarbons and chlorinated solvents can be removed from water by air stripping. This off-gas must be treated with an adsorbent to control emissions. While activated carbon is widely used, it does not handle humid air streams very well and is usually disposed of after only one use.

DOWEX™ OPTIPORE™ polymeric adsorbents are excellent alternatives to AC.

• Excellent capacity and capture efficiency for a wide variety of solvents
• Very hydrophobic so humidity adjustment is not needed
• Regenerable at lower temperatures so it can be regenerated on site and used over and over
• Much smaller beds of OPTIPORE are used to reduce cost
• Fluid bed contactors can be used to reduce treatment costs

Applications:

• Formaldehyde Removal from Air Streams (32KB PDF)
• Styrene Removal from Air Streams (21KB PDF)
• Fluidized Bed Properties of Dow Polymeric Adsorbents (70KB PDF)

Natural Organics and TOC Removal

DOWEX Adsorbent for VOC Abatement

Product	Description	Type	Matrix	Surface Area (m2/g)	Available Forms
DOWEX OPTIPORE V493	Polymeric adsorbent resin is used for the concentration of chlorinated and organic solvents from air streams, particularly in fluid bed systems.	Adsorbent	Styrene-DVB, Macroporous	>1100
DOWEX OPTIPORE V503	Polymeric adsorbent is used for removal of chlorinated and organic solvents from humid air streams, particularly in fixed bed systems.	Adsorbent	Styrene-DVB, Macroporous	>1100

References "Removal of oil from compressed gas with macroporous polymeric adsorbents" Bowman, R.H. and Goltz, H.R. US Patent 5,700,310, December 23, 1997.