Avantium has developed a novel system for high-throughput testing of adsorption material used in respiratory masks for IRCELYON(CNRS, Lyon Univ). Breakthrough experiments are used to determine the adsorption capacity of the adsorbent for a certain organic contaminant under certain conditions like relative humidity and temperature.

The 8 parallel adsorption columns allow efficient simultaneous testing of multiple adsorbents and study the influence of temperature and relative humidity. Temperature can be varied between 20 to 50°C and relative humidity can be controlled between 20 to 80%. The feed gas to each of the 8 columns can be switched between clean air and air containing a contaminant. By analyzing the contaminant concentration in the effluent of each column, the breakthrough curve can be obtained.The system is equipped with sensors for measuring volatile organic compounds (VOC) and relative humidity (RH). In addition, connecting an online mass spectrometer or other suitable external analytical equipment can easily be connected.

Breakthrough tests can be programmed using software as the unit is fully automated. The software allows for various methods of operating the unit and scheduling the experiments. All test results are stored into a database for easy exporting to other software programs for data analysis and visualization.

This new technology, combining multiple-parallel, small-scale columns, with fast, online analytics and automated operation will enable a significant acceleration in the development of new adsorbents, in comparison current industry practice.