VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDSREDUCTION THROUGH OIL ABSORPTION IN PACKAGING COLUMNS

Abstract

This project proposed the study of the performance of packed columns in order to reduce the emission of VOCs present in industrial gas streams by means of absorption in suitable solvent. Due to these compounds are hydrophobic, the solvents were selected because of their similarity to VOCs regarding to polarity and they were: soybean oil, automotive used oil, silicone oil and castor oil. The methodology consisted of assays in a laboratory-scale absorption column, maintaining the same operational parameters among each experiment. Using these parameters and physical characteristics of the laboratory equipment, the experimental results were compared with those obtained by the simulations in Aspen Plus for the possibility of application in real process. Through the absorption performance and environmental and economic criteria, the automotive used oil presented better potential for this purpose due to the fact it is a chemical residue that can be used to mitigate the proposed environmental problem