Adsorption characteristics of activated carbon fibers (ACFs) for toluene: application in respiratory protection

Details

• Personal Author:
  Balanay JG ; Bartolucci AA ; Lungu CT
• Description:
  Granular activated carbon (GAC) is currently the standard adsorbent in respirators against several gases and vapors because of its efficiency, low cost, and available technology. However, a drawback of GAC due to its granular form is its need for containment, adding weight and bulkiness to respirators. This makes respirators uncomfortable to wear, resulting in poor compliance in their use. Activated carbon fibers (ACF) are considered viable alternative adsorbent materials for developing thinner, light-weight, and efficient respirators because of their larger surface area, lighter weight, and fabric form. This study aims to determine the critical bed depth and adsorption capacity of different types of commercially available ACFs for toluene to understand how thin a respirator can be and the service life of the adsorbents, respectively. ACF in cloth (ACFC) and felt (ACFF) forms with three different surface areas per form were tested. Each ACF type was challenged with six concentrations of toluene (50, 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 ppm) at constant air temperature (23 degrees C), relative humidity (50%), and airflow (16 LPM) at different adsorbent weights and bed depths. Breakthrough data were obtained for each adsorbent using gas chromatography with flame ionization detector. The ACFs' surface areas were measured by an automatic physisorption analyzer. The results showed that ACFC has a lower critical bed depth and higher adsorption capacity compared to ACFF with similar surface area for each toluene concentration. Among the ACF types, ACFC2000 (cloth with the highest measured surface area of 1614 +/- 5 m(2)/g) has one of the lowest critical bed depths (ranging from 0.11-0.22 cm) and has the highest adsorption capacity (ranging from 595-878 mg/g). Based on these studied adsorption characteristics, it is concluded that ACF has great potential for application in respiratory protection against toluene, particularly the ACFC2000, which is the best candidate for developing thinner and efficient respirators. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Air Movements Air Pollutants, Occupational Filtration Laboratories Manufacturing And Industrial Facilities Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Respiratory Protective Devices Safety Solvents Toluene

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• Keywords:
  Adsorbents Adsorption Capacity Air-filters Air-flow Author Keywords: Activated Carbon Fiber Carbon-compounds Cloth-filters Critical Bed Depth Equipment-design Equipment-reliability Filter-fabrics Filter-materials Gases Laboratory-testing Materials-testing Performance-capability Personal-protective-equipment Respirator Respirators Respiratory-protection Respiratory-protective-equipment Surface-properties Testing-equipment Toluene Toluenes Vapors Weight-factors

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• ISSN:
  1545-9624
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Alabama ; North Carolina ; OSHA Region 4
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  133-143
• Volume:
  11
• Issue:
  3
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20045305
• Citation:
  J Occup Environ Hyg 2014 Oct; 11(3):133-143
• Contact Point Address:
  Claudia T. Lungu, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Alabama at Birmingham, RPHB 530, 1530 3rd Ave. S, Birmingham, AL 35294
• Email:
  clungu@uab.edu
• CAS Registry Number:
  Carbon (CAS RN 7440-44-0) ; Toluene (CAS RN 108-88-3)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2015
• Performing Organization:
  University of Alabama at Birmingham
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
• End Date:
  20270630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:a47220d74209e4296d52fc5ae18ab4bbf60da91c8fced2c8e07b67a113484f8b4f1415f636510d3b4c17eb13d720b62b092de88dbbe9ea2de7475ab6dcfaa23e
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/200768/cdc_200768_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 570.71 KB ]