Removal of oxygenated pollutants from wastewater by polymeric resins: data on adsorption equilibrium and kinetics in fixed beds

The aqueous phase adsorption of methyl-tert-butyl ether (MTBE) and tert-butyl alcohol (TBA) onto an Amberlite resin at 20°C was investigated under different operating conditions. To this end, both batch and fixed-bed experiments were performed on single solute and bisolute mixtures. The single-solute equilibrium data were fitted by means of the Freundlich equation and isotherm parameters were determined. The data on bisolute adsorption showed a strong competitive effect between MTBE and TBA, which can be described by means of a theoretical model accounting for the non-ideal behaviour of adsorbed phase. Experimental breakthrough curves were determined for single-solute solutions in order to evaluate the overall mass transfer coefficients between liquid and adsorbed phases. A predictive model for multisolute fixed-bed adsorption is proposed and the theoretical results are compared with experimental data.