Abstract: Aiming at the problem of the low quality of recovered ammonia water due to the presence of phenol in the sulfur-containing wastewater stripping ammonia unit of SINOPEC Jinling Company, the study on the selection and mechanism of adsorbents for the recovery of phenol by the fixed bed adsorption method was carried out. The adsorption properties of 3A molecular sieves, 13X molecular sieves, γ-Al2O3 and three activated carbons to phenol were investigated. The results showed that γ-Al2O3 and molecular sieves showed poor adsorption performance due to their polarity. Among them, 3A molecular sieves had the worst adsorption performance because the pore size was smaller than the molecular dynamic diameter of phenol, and activated carbon had the best adsorption performance due to its non-polar surface. It is further found that the pore structure, surface properties and surface oxygen content of activated carbon also have a significant impact on the adsorption performance. Food charcoal with uniform pore distribution, small pore size, clear structure and low surface oxygen content has the biggest adsorption capacity. A Yoon-Nelson kinetic model was established, which could well simulate the adsorption and penetration process of phenol in the activated carbon bed, and provides a direction for drawing the phenol adsorption penetration curve in the future.

Key words: phenol, adsorption, activated carbon, molecular sieve, wastewater