Modeling and Simulation of N-butane Adsorption/Desorption in a Carbon Canister

As a part of developing automotive fuel vapor emission control, a two dimensional, time-accurate simulation capability for adsorption/desorption in a carbon canister has been developed. Dubinin-Polanyi adsorption potential model has been used for n-butane (a surrogate for gasoline vapor) adsorption at ambient pressure on activated carbon adsorbent of Westvaco product BAX 950, and nitrogen was chosen as the carrier gas. Linear driving force model is used for heat and mass transfer rates. The impacts of different n-butane concentration on the adsorption phenomena and different initial carbon bed equilibrium adsorption states on desorption phenomena are studied. Results such as adsorption breakthrough curve, desorption curve, adsorption amount, n-butane mole fraction and temperature profiles are provided. Comparisons with results from previous work are made to verify the current model.