Application of the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) to the inversion of Laplace transforms is a recent development in the solution of the equations describing the behavior of chemical reactors. Chen and Hsu (1987) used the Fast Fourier Transform for the prediction of breakthrough curves of an isothermal fixed bed adsorber. The Fast Fourier Transform method has been further developed for the calculation of breakthrough curves in non-isothermal adsorbers (Mees et al., 1989). The purpose of this work is the application of this method to a practical engineering problem involving parameter estimation.

Application of the fast Fourier transform, to the inversion of Laplace transforms is a recent development in the solution of equations describing chemical reactors. Hsu and Dranoff (1987) describe in detail how this method can be applied. Chen and Hsu (1987) use the fast Fourier transform for the prediction of breakthrough curves of an isothermal fixed-bed adsorber. The major strength of this approach is its speed of calculation. The purpose of the present work is to investigate the limits of the method and to show how this method can also be applied for nonisothermal adsorbers.