Technical Evaluation of the Influence of Inlet Flow Rate and Bed Height on a Packed Column Containing Residual Biomass During Computer-Aided Industrial Scale-Up

This research seeks to model a packed bed with cocoa waste on an industrial scale using computer software and parametric evaluation to remove Pb(II) in solution. To achieve this, they developed multiple simulations of a packed bed using Aspen Adsorption software using different configurations of inlet flow rate and bed height through a parametric sensitivity study to evaluate the system performance using Langmuir as an isothermal model and the Linear Driving Force (LDF) model as a kinetic model. It was found that the efficiency of the adsorption process reached 99.7% for Pb(II) removal. On the other hand, the best simulation conditions considering efficiency, breakthrough time and saturation were a flow rate of 200 m3/day, a head of 5 m and an initial concentration of 1000 mg/L. This research exhibits a novel engineering perspective to anticipate the potential performance of packed bed with agro-industrial biomasses in the multiscale removal of Pb(II).