Chloronitrobenzenes (CNBs) are important organic intermediates that are used practically for azos, sulfur dyes, pesticides, fungicides, and in rubber chemical industries. Many separation and purification techniques, such as distillation, crystallization, and adsorption, have been investigated to achieve the highest purity and conversion of CNB. In this work, adsorption will be explored more in detail for the CNB separation and purification. From our previous study, the static adsorption of m- and ,p-CNB shows that the selective adsorption of m-CNB is higher than that of p-CNB for all tested FAU zeolites – LiX, NaX, and NaY. In addition, LiX is found to have adsorption capacities higher than NaX and NaY In this study, the adsorption of m- and p-CNB mixtures was further investigated for their dynamic adsorption characteristics on LiX, NaX, and NaY zeolites using pulse test and breakthrough techniques. Desorbent and feed composition were varied for the investigation. The effects of temperature were also studied. The results substantiate those from the static adsorption study. A comparison will be made for both adsorption capacity and selectivity. Furthermore, the adsorption behaviors of both CNB isomers deduced from both static and dynamic studies will be presented.

Keyword: Chloronitrobenzene, Zeolite, Adsorption, Separation