Adsorption processes have experienced a significant growth in the last decades. This growth was a result of scientific and technological advances which generated new adsorbents as well as new concepts for processing systems (UOP's "Sorbex" process and PSA cycles). The expectations for a continued development of adsorption are high since process engineering is deeply concerned with intensive processes using less energy. Adsorption processes are also relevant to the increasingly important area of biotechonology. The development of affinity processes is a creative synthesis of biochemistry,molecular biology and chemical engineering. This NATO Advanced Study Institute on "ADSORPTION:SCIENCE and TECHNOLOGY" had as a primary objective to provide an updated treatment of the fundamentals of adsorption and adsorption processes. The lectures presented at the Institute are collected in this volume together with a few papers presented by participants. The material is arranged in four sections.Part I deals with the characterization of adsorption and thermodynamics of adsorption,namely the correlation of equilibrium data.Part II covers the kinetics of adsorption and fixed-bed processes (equilibrium theory,design aspects, adsorptive reactors).Part III is an extensive coverage of cyclic processes (pressure swing adsorption and thermal swing adsorption) and simulated moving beds (modeling for process optimization and industrial applications).Finally Part IV deals with applications mainly in biotechnolo gy (con tin uous adsorption, affini ty chrom atography, gel permeation,chromatographic reactors,scale-up methods).

I. Characterization of Adsorbents and Tthermodynamics of Adsorption.- Characterization of adsorbents.- Theories of adsorption in micropores.- The statistical thermodynamic approach to the correlation of equilibrium data.- A two-patch heterogeneous model with surface phase transition for benzene adsorption on silicalite.- Interpretation of low temperature gas adsorption and desorption using stochastic pore networks.- Adsorption of n-hexane and 3-methylpentane on zeolites Y and ZSM 20.- II. Kinetics of Adsorption and Fixed-Bed Processes.- Adsorption kinetics.- Dynamics of fixed-bed adsorbers. Isothermal adsorption of single components.- Asymptotic fixed-bed behavior: proportionate and constant patterns.- Pore scale hydrodynamics.- Separation processes based on electrosorption phenomena.- Adsorptive reactors.- Design aspects of fixed-bed adsorption processes.- Numerical methods for the solution of adsorption models.- III. Cyclic Processes and Simulated Moving Beds.- Gas separation by pressure swing adsorption using carbon molecular sieves.- Pressure swing adsorption technology.- Modeling and simulation of rate induced PSA separations.- Thermal swing adsorption.- On countercurrent adsorption separation processes.- Sorbex: continuing innovation in liquid phase adsorption.- IV. Applications in Biotechnology and Environmental Engineering.- The use of granular activated carbon for potable water treatment as an example of liquid phase applications of activated carbon.- Breakthrough time of organic vapours in activated carbon filters as a function of the air flow pattern.- Continuous adsorption in biotechnology.- Continuous chromatographic processes.- Biochemical reaction and separation in chromatographic columns.- Some factors involved in scale-up of industrial biotechnologicaladsorption processes.- Development of physical and mathematical modelling for scale-up of batch stirred tank and packed-bed column adsorption and chromatographic units.- Optimisation of adsorption techniques for the purification of biomolecules.- Gel filtration chromatography.- Adsorption chromatography for protein purification.- List of Lecturers and Participants.