The search for new adsorbents with enhanced capacity and selectivity, suitable for application on large‐scale simulated moving‐bed units for separation of p‐xylene, requires efficient, reliable, and fast adsorbent characterization methods for this specific separation. Fixed‐bed experiments were carried out under the conditions of the Parex process to evaluate a faujasite‐type zeolite as adsorbent for the separation of p‐xylene from its isomers in the proportions of the real Parex feed stream. The experimental breakthrough curves were used to evaluate the selected adsorbent in terms of nonselective and selective volumes, adsorption capacity, selectivity, and productivity, which can be applied to identify the feasible separation region for different operating conditions.

The effects of temperature on the synthesis of 1,1-dibutoxyethane (DBE) in a fixedbed adsorptive reactor were studied by performing both adsorption/desorption and reaction/regeneration experiments at 15 and 35°C. The Langmuir-type isotherm parameters at 15 and 35°C were obtained from the adsorption/desorption experiments. The reaction/regeneration experiments showed an increase in both conversion and productivity with increasing temperature. Isothermal and nonisothermal mathematical models were used to simulate the reactor operation with different Damköhler numbers. The simulated results suggest that the reactor productivity can be improved by using the adiabatic operation mode on the fixedbed adsorptive reactor, obtaining a productivity for DBE of 71.8 mol kg -1 h -1 .