title: Predicting the lifetime of organic vapor cartridges exposed to volatile organic compound mixtures using a partial differential equations model.
abstract: In this study, equilibria, breakthrough curves, and breakthrough times were predicted for three binary mixtures of four volatile organic compounds (VOCs) using a model based on partial differential equations of dynamic adsorption coupling a mass balance, a simple Linear Driving Force (LDF) hypothesis to describe the kinetics, and the well-known Extended-Langmuir (EL) equilibrium model. The model aims to predict with a limited complexity, the BTCs of respirator cartridges exposed to binary vapor mixtures from equilibria and kinetics data obtained from single component. In the model, multicomponent mass transfer was simplified to use only single dynamic adsorption data. The EL expression used in this study predicted equilibria with relatively good accuracy for acetone/ethanol and ethanol/cyclohexane mixtures, but the prediction of cyclohexane uptake when mixed with heptane is less satisfactory. The BTCs given by the model were compared to experimental BTCs to determine the accuracy of the model and the impact of the approximation on mass transfer coefficients. From BTCs, breakthrough times at 10% of the exposure concentration t10% were determined. All t10% were predicted within 20% of the experimental values, and 63% of the breakthrough times were predicted within a 10% error. This study demonstrated that a simple mass balance combined with kinetic approximations is sufficient to predict lifetime for respirator cartridges exposed to VOC mixtures. It also showed that a commonly adopted approach to describe multicomponent adsorption based on volatility of VOC rather than adsorption equilibrium greatly overestimated the breakthrough times.
authors.affiliation: a Laboratoire Réactions et Génie des Procédés, CNRS, Université de Lorraine , Nancy , France.|b Laboratoire de Filtration et d'Adsorption-INRS , Nancy , France.
authors.forename: François
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Vuong
authors.affiliation: a Laboratoire Réactions et Génie des Procédés, CNRS, Université de Lorraine , Nancy , France.|b Laboratoire de Filtration et d'Adsorption-INRS , Nancy , France.
authors.forename: Romain
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chauveau
authors.affiliation: a Laboratoire Réactions et Génie des Procédés, CNRS, Université de Lorraine , Nancy , France.
authors.forename: Georges
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Grevillot
authors.affiliation: b Laboratoire de Filtration et d'Adsorption-INRS , Nancy , France.
authors.forename: Stéphanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Marsteau
authors.affiliation: b Laboratoire de Filtration et d'Adsorption-INRS , Nancy , France.
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Silvente
authors.affiliation: a Laboratoire Réactions et Génie des Procédés, CNRS, Université de Lorraine , Nancy , France.
authors.forename: Cécile
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vallieres
mesh_terms: D000096:Acetone / Q000737:chemistry; D000327:Adsorption; D000395:Air Pollutants, Occupational / Q000737:chemistry; D003510:Cyclohexanes / Q000737:chemistry; D004868:Equipment Failure; D000431:Ethanol / Q000737:chemistry; D006536:Heptanes / Q000737:chemistry; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D012134:Respiratory Protective Devices / Q000592:standards*; D055549:Volatile Organic Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*; D014835:Volatilization
chemical_list: D000395:Air Pollutants, Occupational; D003510:Cyclohexanes; D006536:Heptanes; D055549:Volatile Organic Compounds; D000096:Acetone; D000431:Ethanol; C506365:Cyclohexane
keywords: Breakthrough time prediction; lifetime; mixtures; model; organic vapor cartridges; volatile organic compounds