  This work is aimed at understanding the basic principles of adsorption
process in great details as adsorptive separation process has broad
applications in the industry. To this end, a simple mathematical model has been
used to describe transient fixed bed physical adsorption process. Governing
equations are solved numerically to obtain breakthrough curves for single
component and multi-component monolayer adsorption. Desorption of a saturated
bed by an inert fluid is also considered. A full parametric study is performed
to analyze the effects of different parameters such as bed length, velocity,
diffusivity, particle radius and isotherm properties on the nature of the
breakthrough curve. Analysis of these results led to the development of the
generic breakthrough curve for a single component monolayer adsorption which
will enable us to tell the nature of breakthrough curve for different process
parameters without recourse to the numerical simulation or experiment. Thus
this study will be of great interest in the industrial separation process.
