Journal of Food Engineering 78 (2007) 12591266

www.elsevier.com/locate/jfoodeng

Granular activated carbon for the recovery of the main pear

aroma compound: Viability and kinetic modelling of
ethyl-2,4-decadienoate adsorption
Nazely Diban, Gema Ruiz, Ane Urtiaga, Inmaculada Ortiz *

Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Cantabria, Avda. de los Castros s/n. 39005 Santander, Spain

Received 14 June 2005; accepted 4 January 2006

Available online 14 February 2006

Abstract

Methyl and ethyl esters of 2,4-decadienoic acids are considered the main responsible compounds for the typical avour impact of
pears. In this work, the adsorption on granular activated carbon (GAC) was the selected method for extracting ethyl-2,4-decadienoate
from an aqueous phase, examining the possibility of recovery of this valuable aroma component from the aqueous fruit juice. Equilib-
rium and kinetic data were obtained in xed-bed column experiments. The experimental variables under study were the concentration of
the ethyl-2,4-decadienoate in the feed solution, in the range 0.200.39 mol m3 and the length of the GAC bed. Equilibrium data were
tted to the Freundlich isotherm, obtaining the characteristic parameters. For the analysis of the kinetic data, a mathematical model
accounting for eective pore diusion was proposed. The value of the intraparticle diusivity was obtained using an estimation procedure
to give Dp 2:47  109 m2 s1. This value, higher than the molecular diusion coecient indicates an important contribution of surface
diusion to the eective pore diusivity parameter. Finally, the application of the adsorption model using the estimated value of Dp sim-
ulated satisfactorily well the breakthrough curves under the operation conditions.
 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Adsorption; Aroma compounds; Kinetics; Granular activated carbon

1. Introduction application range, and the choice itself is limited because

Key components of the fruit avour complex are the
volatile compounds that constitute the aroma. In the indus-
trial production of fruit juice, the recovery of the fruit
aroma has become a very competitive point. The current
juice production process involves a series of thermal steps,
e.g., concentration by evaporation, that are energy inten-
sive and that can lead to losses or modication of the
aroma properties (Somogyi, Barret, & Hui, 1996). The
recovery of the aroma compounds is usually performed
by steam distillation, but the high temperatures involved
can damage the product. The use of solvents limits their
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 942 201585; fax: +34 942 201591.
E-mail address: ortizi@unican.es (I. Ortiz).
as food additives they have to comply with rigorous health
standards (Morton & Macleod, 1990).
Several techniques have been proposed as alternative
methods to the thermal treatments, i.e., air stripping, mem-
brane based processes (Jiao, Cassano, & Drioli, 2004),
including reverse osmosis (Alvarez, Riera, Alvarez, &
Coca, 1998), osmotic distillation (Ali, Dornier, Duquenoy,
& Reynes, 2003), pervaporation (Lipnizki, Olsson, &
Tragardh, 2002; Pereira et al., 2005), and adsorption
(Edris, Girgis, & Fadel, 2003; Lucas, Cocero, Zetzl, &
Brunner, 2004). These alternatives have the objectives of
improving the quality of the aroma obtained from the
natural fruit source and also of decreasing the energy costs
associated to the thermal processes.
Adsorption involves the separation of a substance
(i.e., adsorbate) from one phase, accompanied by its

0260-8774/$ - see front matter  2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2006.01.001
1260 N. Diban et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 78 (2007) 12591266

accumulation or concentration in the surface of the adsorb- the prediction of the evolution with time of the concentra-
ing phase (i.e., adsorbent). The application of adsorption in tion of the adsorbate in the uid leaving the GAC column,
food processing is increasing, using natural and synthetic as a function of the operation conditions (Rivero, Ibanez,
adsorbents (Carabasa, Ibarz, Garza, & Barbosa-Canovas, & Ortiz, 2002, 2004). The main assumptions of the model
1998; Chu, Baharin, Che Man, & Quek, 2004). Activated are (i) fast intrinsic adsorption kinetics, so instantaneous
carbon has long been recognized as one of the most versa- local equilibrium is considered and (ii) both the external
tile adsorbents to be used for the eective separation of vol- resistance of solute mass transfer from the bulk liquid
atile compounds from aqueous phases (Bansal, Donnet, & phase to the particle surface and the internal resistance
Stoeckli, 1988; Cooney, 1998; Jankowska, Swiatkowski, & associated to solute diusion within the particle pores are
Choma, 1991). The essential forces of adsorption are phys- considered (Ruthven, 1984; Wankat, 1996).
ical in nature. It allows the operation under mild condi- The dierential solute mass balance in the interstitial
tions so that the physical and chemical properties of the liquid is given by
adsorbed components are not aected. The large value of oC oC oC 2
the internal surface, together with the mesoporosity and ee K f ap C  cjrRp ee u0 E Dm 2 1
ot oz oz
microporosity contribution to the total porosity, confers
the activated carbon advantages over other adsorbent where C is the concentration of the solute in the interstitial
materials. uid, c the concentration of the solute inside the GAC par-
The application of activated carbon in the recovery of ticle, t the time, z the axial coordinate, Kf the external mass
aroma components seems scarce. Edris et al. (2003) used transfer coecient, E the axial dispersion coecient, Dm
activated carbon to recover volatile aroma components the molecular diusivity of the solute, ap the supercial
from three aqueous streams obtained form the distillation area of the particle, u0 the interstitial uid velocity, ee the
of aromatic plants, e.g., peppermint, lemongrass and spear- bed porosity and Rp the radius of the particle, for spherical
mint. Matsukura, Takaahashi, Ishiguro, and Matsuchita GAC particles, ap = 3/Rp. The rst term of Eq. (1) repre-
(1984) studied the adsorption and recovery of the aroma sents the accumulation of solute in the mobile uid, the sec-
compounds from roasted tobacco plant on activated car- ond term is the transfer rate of solute across the liquid lm
bon. Krings, Kelch, and Berger (1993) performed adsorp- around the particle, the third term accounts for the change
tion tests of 12 aroma compounds representative of in concentration along the bed length due to forced convec-
microbial cultures using styrenedivinylbenzene-based res- tion and the last term accounts for dispersion.
ins and alternative adsorbents including activated carbon. The initial and boundary conditions of Eq. (1) are
Pears are amongst the most widely grown and consumed t 0; 0 6 z 6 L; C C 0
of temperate fruit crops. The composition of the pear a- oC
vour complex depends on the varieties, origin and culture t > 0; z L; 0 2
oz
conditions. The information involving volatile organic oC
compounds associated with pear aroma is relatively limited t > 0; z 0; E Dm u0 C 0  C z0
oz
compared with other fruits, but most authors (Suwanagul
& Richardson, 1998) have mentioned that methyl and ethyl where L is the length of the xed bed of granular activated
esters of 2,4-decadienoic acids are responsible for the typi- carbon and C0 is the concentration of the solute in the feed
cal avour impact of pears. solution that enters into the GAC bed.
In this work, the adsorption on granular activated car- Mass transfer of the adsorbate inside the particles
bon (GAC) was the selected method for extracting the occurs by a combination of Fickian diusion in the liquid
main pear aroma compound, ethyl-2,4-decadienoate, from phase lling the pores and surface diusion. For spherical
an aqueous phase, examining the possibility of recovery of particles, the diusion of the adsorbate within the particle
this valuable aroma component from the aqueous fruit is described by
 
juice. The adsorption equilibrium was experimentally and oc oq  2 oc oc2
mathematically characterized. A kinetic model including ep qp 1  ep Dp 3
ot ot Rp or o2 r
intraparticle diusion permitted the description of the data
obtained in a granular activated carbon xed-bed column. where q is the concentration of adsorbate in the solid phase
After the determination of the characteristic mass transfer of GAC, r is the radial coordinate, Dp is the eective pore
parameters, i.e., eective pore diusivity, the breakthrough diusivity, ep the particle porosity and qp the particle
curves were simulated under the key operating conditions, density.
such as ow rate, concentration and column length. Initial and boundary conditions of Eq. (3) are
t 0; 0 6 r 6 Rp ; c 0; q0
2. Mathematical model  
oc
t > 0; r Rp ; K f C  crRp Dp
or rRp 4
A kinetic model to describe the semi-continuous adsorp-
tion of ethyl-2,4-decadienoate in a xed bed of granular oc
t > 0; r 0; 0
activated carbon was developed. The model is aimed at or
 N. Diban et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 78 (2007) 12591266
The full expression for the eective pore diusivity (Choy,
Porter, & McKay, 2004) is
Dm dq
Dp ep qp Ds 5 then heating up to 180 C at a rate of 3 C/min with an ini-
s dc
where Ds is the solid-phase surface diusivity, dq/dc is the
slope of the adsorption equilibrium isotherm, and s is the
tortuosity factor of the pores of the GAC particles.
In the above model, the mass transfer parameters that
characterize the adsorption of volatile compounds in the
GAC are Dm, the diusion coecient of the solute in the
uid; E, the axial dispersion coecient; Kf, the external
mass transfer coecient and Dp , the eective pore diusiv-
ity. The values of Dm, E, and Kf, corresponding to the oper-
ating conditions of this work will be calculated using
standard correlations. The value of Dp is unknown and it
will be obtained following an estimation procedure. The
best value of Dp will be obtained by comparing the exper-
imental adsorption data with the simulated results to pro-
vide a minimum standard deviation, using the software
tool given in the Aspen Custom Modeller process simula-
tor, that uses nite dierences for the discretization of dif-
ferential equations.
3. Materials and methods
3.1. Qualitative determination of main pear aroma
compounds
The pear variety used in this work is called Bartlett.
Using the analytical procedures described by previous
research groups (Chervin, Speirs, Loveys, & Patterson,
2000; Krajl Cigic & Zupancic-Kralj, 1999), a method to
characterize the aromatic proles of the Bartlett pear was
developed, identifying groups of esters, alcohols, hydrocar-
bons, aldehydes and ketones.
Pears were purchased from a local market at the
commercial ripeness stage. The extraction of aroma
ompounds was performed by using the solid-phase micro-
extraction technique with a SPME bre (100 lm, poly-
dimethylsiloxane, SigmaAldrich). The bre was condi-
tioned following the manufacturers instructions previous
to its use. Approximately, 20 ml of crushed pear was placed
in a glass vial, lling it completely. The vial was hermeti-
cally sealed with a silicon/Teon septum cap and it was
placed inside a water bath at 50 C for 10 min. Then, the
PDMS bre was inserted through the vial septum and
placed inside the crushed pear during 30 min at
50 C. Finally, the bre was inserted into the injection
port of the gas chromatographic system. Desorption was
performed at 250 C for 5 min under helium ow
(1 ml min1).
For the peak identication, GCMS analysis was con-
ducted in a Hewlett Packard 6896 series, coupled to a
5973 quadrupole mass spectrometer. A DB-Wax high-res-
olution gas chromatographic column (30 m 0.25 mm
ID) coated with a 0.25 lm lm of stationary phase was
1261
used. Helium was employed as carrier gas at a ow rate
of 1.0 ml/min using a 1:50 split ratio. The oven temperature
was programmed in the following sequence, 2 min at 45 C,
tial hold of 2 min and a nal hold of 3 min at 250 C. The
injector and detector temperatures were set to 250 and
300 C, respectively. Ion source and quadrupole mass ana-
lyser temperatures were set at 170 and 130 C, respectively.
The ionization mode was electron impact with an electron
energy of 70 eV.
The mass spectrometer data acquisition was performed
using the ChemStation software. The identication of the
volatile compounds was achieved by comparing their mass
spectra with those stored in the NIST library. Additionally,
for identication of ethyl-2,4-decadienoate, samples pre-
pared by addition of the synthetic compound to those
obtained from pears were analysed.
Fig. 1 shows a chromatogram obtained by GCMS after
headspace sampling with SPME of the crushed Barlett
pear. Five chromatographic peaks were identied, (1)
buthyl acetate, tR = 1.5 min; (2) hexyl acetate tR =
10.5 min; (3) methyl-2,4-decadienoate tR = 32 min; (4)
ethyl-2,4-decadienoate tR = 33.7 min; (5) 1,3-dihydroxy-
propanone tR = 41.5 min. Thus, the presence of ethyl-2,4-
decadienoate was experimentally checked. These results
are quite in accordance with a recent work on the authen-
tication of pear avour, using gas chromatographyisotope
ratio mass spectrometry analytical techniques (Kahle,
Preston, Richling, Heckel, & Schreier, 2005).
3.2. Activated carbon
The Aquasorb GAC was supplied by Jacobi Carbons.
This commercial GAC was boiled in water to remove nes
and dried at 90 C. The structural characteristics of the sor-
bent were determined by means of the nitrogen adsorp-
tiondesorption isotherms at 77 K (Micromeritics ASAP
2000), and mercury porosimetry (Micromeritics Pore Sizer
9310). Data were analysed following standard procedures
(Gregg & Sing, 1997). The resulting physical properties of
the Aquasorb GAC are given in Table 1.
3.3. Adsorption experiments
Synthetic solutions of ethyl-2,4-decadienoate (Sigma
Aldrich) were prepared by addition of an amount of
this compound to 30/70 v/v % solutions of ethanol
absolute (Panreac Qumica)/Milli-Q water (Millipore
Corporation).
Fig. 2 shows a ow diagram of the experimental set-up
used in the xed-bed adsorption tests. The feed phase
was pumped from the feed reservoir to the adsorption col-
umn using a peristaltic pump (Minipulse 3 model, Gilson).
Samples were collected at the column outlet. A owmeter
equipped with a back-pressure valve was used to monitor
and control the uid owrate. Initial viability experiments
were performed in batch mode by recycling the eluate
1262 N. Diban et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 78 (2007) 12591266
Fig. 1. GCMS chromatograms after SPME sampling showing the composition of the volatiles of Barlett pear. Identied peaks: (1) buthyl acetate
(1.5 min); (2) hexyl acetate (10.5 min); (3) methyl-2,4-decadienoate (32 min); (4) ethyl-2,4-decadienoate (33.7 min); (5) 1,3-dihydroxypropanone (41.5 min).
Table 1
Characterization of the Aquasorb GAC
Parameters
BET surface area [m2/g]
Particle density [kg/m3]
Bulk density [kg/m3]
Total pore volume [cm3/g]
Macropore volume (dp > 500 A) [cm3/g]
Mesopore volume (20 A < dp < 500 A) [cm3/g]
Micropore volume (dp < 20 A) [cm3/g]
Average particle size [mm]
Particle porosity []
stream from the column outlet to the feed tank, as drawn
by a dotted line in Fig. 2.
A glass column with an internal diameter of 6 103 m
was used. The column was lled with a xed bed of GAC
supported on washed glass wool QP (Panreac Qumica).
Four dierent bed lengths were obtained by lling the col-
umn with dierent quantities of activated carbon. Adsorp-
tion experiments were carried out at room temperature that
was found to remain approximately constant around
25 C. Experimental conditions are detailed in Table 2.
3.4. Analytical method
The concentration of ethyl-2,4-decadienoate in aqueous/
Value
ethanol samples was determined by means of GC (Thermo
878
Quest, model 8000 TOP) with a ame ionization detector
1224
920 (FID) and equipped with a DB-Wax chromatographic col-
0.511 umn (30 m 0.25 mm I.D.). The temperature was pro-
0.026 grammed from 50 to 240 C according to the following
0.260 program, 2 min at 50 C, an increase from 50 to 100 C
0.224
at a rate of 20 C/min; a second increase from 100 to
0.95
0.62 180 C at a rate of 5 C/min, then at 70 C/min up to
240 C; and nally, 4 min at 240 C. The injector and detec-
tor were set to 250 and 300 C, respectively. The carrier gas
was nitrogen that owed at a ow rate of 1 ml/min and
splitless mode of injection.
4. Results and discussion
Several experiments were carried out working with
xed-bed columns of dierent length. The inuence of the
inlet concentration of ethyl-2,4-decadienoate in the feed
solution was studied. The detailed experimental conditions
are given in Table 2. The uid was circulated in a once-
 N. Diban et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 78 (2007) 12591266 1263

Batch experiments
Once-through
experiments
TI

GAC
Fixed Sample
Bed collection

TI

Feed
Tank FI

Fig. 2. Experimental set-up for the xed-bed adsorption tests.

Table 2
Experimental conditions of kinetic experiments
Experiment Feed concentration Feed temperature Mass of carbon Fixed-bed length Flow rate through
no. (mol m3) (C) (kg) (m) the bed (m3 s1)
1 0.39 25 2.2 104 0.060 5.4 108
2 0.28 25 2.1 104 0.055 5.4 108
3 0.22 25 1.4 104 0.035 5.4 108
4 0.20 25 1.2 104 0.030 5.4 108

through mode and the weight of the activated carbon was
changed in each experiment. Experiments were led to pro-
ceed for a time longer than 40 h until the outlet solute con-
centration was equal to the inlet concentration. In that
moment the GAC xed-bed was saturated with ethyl-2,4-
decadienoate and the adsorption equilibrium of the solute
between the aqueous and the activated carbon was consid-
ered to be reached (Ruthven, 1984).
From the breakthrough curves represented in Fig. 3,
equilibrium data of the adsorption of ethyl-2,4-decadieo-
nate in water/ethanol solutions onto GAC at 25 C were
obtained. By integration of the area above the break-
through curve, the total solute removed from the feed
stream upon complete saturation of the bed, that is equal
to the amount of solute that the adsorbent phase contains,
was calculated. The values of the equilibrium concentration
of the solute in the GAC sorbent, qe (mol kg1) as a func-
tion of the equilibrium concentration of the solute in the
liquid phase, Ce (mol m3) are presented in Fig. 4.
Equilibrium adsorption data were correlated to the
well-known Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms. These
equations were chosen because they are simple and repre-
sentative of possible favourable adsorption isotherms.

2.5
0.45
0.4 2
qe (mol Kg-1)

0.35
1.5
C (mol.m-3)

0.3
0.25
1
0.2
Exp 1
0.15 0.5
Exp 2
0.1 Exp 3
0.05 Exp 4
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4
0
0 50000 100000 150000 Ce (mol m-3)
Time (s)
Fig. 4. Equilibrium data for the adsorption of ethyl-2,4-decadienoate in
Fig. 3. Experimental breakthrough curves for ethyl-2,4-decadienoate. water/ethanol solution onto Aquasorb GAC at 25 C. Solid line:
Experimental condition given in Table 2. Freundlich isotherm, as given in Eq. (6).
1264 N. Diban et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 78 (2007) 12591266
Table 3
Parameters of Langmuir and Freundlich equations
Isotherm equation Linearized isotherm equation
Langmuir
abC e 1 1 1 1
qe
1 bC e qe ab C e a
Freundlich
qe KC 1=n 1
e log qe log K log C e
n
Both equations, together with the calculated values of the
equilibrium parameters are presented in Table 3. The best
tting of the experimental data was obtained with the
Freundlich equation, as given by the correlation coecient,
r2. The calculated values of the parameters of the Freund-
lich isotherm, n = 5 and K = 2.6, fall in the range reported
in the literature for adsorption of volatile compounds
in mesoporous/microporous GAC (Gonzalez-Serrano,
Cordero, Rodrguez-Mirasol, & Rodrguez, 1997; Ruthven,
1984). The comparison between the experimental equilib-
rium data and simulated data using the Freundlich iso-
therms are also given in Fig. 4.
Thus, the resulting equilibrium equation is given by
q 2:6C 1=5
The breakthrough curves of ethyl-2,4-decadienoate were
regressed with the mass transfer model, Eqs. (1)(6), being
the eective diusion coecient Dp the adjustable parame-
ter. The value of the axial dispersion coecient was calcu-
lated from the correlations reported by Levenspiel (1999),
obtaining a value of E = 1.19 105 m2 s1. The external
mass transfer coecient, Kf, was estimated by using the
correlation of Wilson and Geankoplis (Perry, 2001), Eq.
(7), obtaining a value of 5 10 105 m s1.
Sh 1:09=ee Sc1=3 Re1=3 7
The diusion coecient of the solute in the uid was calcu-
lated using the WilkeChang semi-empirical equation
(Perry, 2001), obtaining a value of Dm (25 C) =
6.62 1010 m2 s1.
The value of the eective pore diusivity, Dp , was esti-
mated by the best tting of the experimental data to the
mathematical model based on the minimization of the
Ordinary Least Squares Coecient (OLS), according to
X 2
OLS C exp  C sim 8
The comparison between the experimental data and the
simulated breakthrough curves is shown in Fig. 5. The
model predicted the breakthrough curves satisfactorily,
resulting the estimated value of the model parameter
Dp 2:47  109 m2 s1.
The calculated value of Dp is higher than the value of the
diusion coecient in the liquid phase, Dm = 6.62
1010 m2 s1. The dierence can be explained by the full
Parameters r2
a = 2.25 mol kg1 0.955
b = 30.47 m3 mol1
K = 2.6 (mol kg1)(mol m3)1/5 0.968
n=5
expression of the eective pore diusivity, given by Eq.
(5). The value of the rst term of the right-hand side of
Eq. (5), ep Dsm , is always lower than the value of Dm, since
the value of the particle porosity is in the range 0 < ep < 1
and the value of the tortuosity factor is s > 1. Then, the
main contribution to Dp is due to surface diusion, repre-
sented in Eq. (5) by the term qp Ds dqdc
. In order to make an
estimation of the magnitude of the surface diusion coe-
cient Ds, the value of s is needed. According to Ruthven
(1984) tortuosity factors of activated carbons generally fall
in the range between 2 and 6. In this work an average value
of s = 4 is considered. The slopes of the equilibrium iso-
therm are obtained from the isotherm; for simplicity con-
sidering equilibrium concentrations in the experimental
6
range, an average value of dq/dC = 1.42 was calculated.
In these conditions a value of Ds = 1.36 1012 m2 s1 is
obtained for this system. This value is within the range of
values of surface diusion coecients in the adsorption
of volatile organics onto activated carbon xed-bed
adsorbers, as it has been recently reported in the case of tri-
chloroethylene adsorption (Sotelo, Uguina, Delgado, &
Celemin, 2004).
According to the above calculations the contribution of
the surface diusion term is 20 times as much as liquid dif-
fusion in the pore volume. Similar percentages were
reported by Neretnieks (1976), where six dierent adsorp-
tion systems were analysed: phenol, paranitrophenol, ben-
zoic acid, phenylacetic acid and 2,4-dichloroohenoxyacetic
acid. More recently, the homogeneous surface diusion
model has been applied to model the adsorption of phenol
and basic yellow 21 dye onto activated carbon (McKay,
2001) and to the adsorption of maltopentaose from malto-
oligosaccharide mixtures (Lee, Kwon, & Moon, 2004). In
the latter work, the eective surface diusivities for three
monosaccharides, were calculated in the range 1.02
10120.98 1012 m2 s1 while the reported value of the
diusion coecient in the liquid phase was Dm =
6.99 1010 m2 s1 (fructose, galactose, glucose, 20 C),
values that are of the same order than the values of the
parameters obtained in the present study for the adsorption
of ethyl-2,4-decadienoate on granular activated carbon.
The simulated and actual values of the dimensionless
concentration of ethyl-2,4-decadienoate for both, batch
and continuous experiments are shown as parity graph in
 N. Diban et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 78 (2007) 12591266 1265

1
1
0.8
0.8

(C/C0)sim
0.6
0.6
C/C0

0.4
0.4

0.2
0.2 Exp 1
Sim 1
0
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
0 50000 100000 150000
(C/C0)exp
Time(s)
Fig. 6. Parity graph. Comparison of experimental and simulated results:
(m) batch experiments, (j) once-through experiments, (- - -)
1 C/C0,exp 10% C/C0,sim, () C/C0,exp 15% C/C0,sim.

0.8

0.6 C/C0,exp 15% C/C0,sim. These results show that the esti-
C/C0

mated value of the parameter Dp permits a satisfactory

0.4 description of the adsorption process of ethyl-2,4-decadie-
noate in granular activated carbon.
0.2 Exp 2
Sim 2
0 5. Conclusions
0 50000 100000 150000
Time(s)
In this work, the adsorption of ethyl-2,4-decadienoate
1
on GAC was studied. Adsorption experiments were per-
formed in a xed-bed conguration. The inuence of the
0.8 concentration of ethyl-2,4-decadienoate in the feed solution
and the GAC column length were experimentally studied,
0.6 providing the breakthrough curves. The equilibrium data
C/C0

were tted to the Freundlich isotherm. A mathematical

0.4
model accounting for eective intraparticle diusion was
0.2 Exp 3 used to t the kinetic adsorption data. The estimated value
Sim 3 of the intraparticle diusion rate parameter was
0 Dp 2:47  109 m2 s1. The calculated value of Dp is
0 50000 100000 150000 higher than the value of the diusion coecient in the
Time(s) liquid phase, Dm = 6.62 1010 m2 s1. Thus, it was
proved that surface diusion was the main contributing
1 mechanism to intraparticle mass transfer. The comparison
of the simulated and the actual values of the dimensionless
0.8 concentration of ethyl-2,4-decadienoate showed that
86% of simulated values fall within the interval
0.6
C/C0

C/C0,exp 10% C/C0,sim, while the 91.4% fall within

0.4 C/C0,exp 15% C/C0,sim. These results show that the esti-
mated value of the parameter Dp permits a satisfactory
0.2 Exp 4 description of the adsorption process of ethyl-2,4-decadie-
Sim 4 noate in granular activated carbon.
0
0 50000 100000 150000
Time(s)
Acknowledgements
Fig. 5. Experimental and simulated breakthrough curves of ethyl-2,4-
decadienoate adsorption in Aquasorb GAC. Experimental condition given Financial support of the Spanish Ministry of Education
in Table 2. and Science (MEC) under projects PPQ2003-00934 and
BQU2002-03357 and FPI grant is gratefully acknowledged.
Fig. 6. The 86% of simulated values fall within the interval Prof. Francisco Salvador (University of Salamanca) kindly
C/C0,exp 10% C/C0,sim, while the 91.4% fall within provided the samples of GAC used in this study.
1266 N. Diban et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 78 (2007) 12591266
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