Since almost all adsorptive separation processes are dynamic -meaning, that they are running under flow - testing porous materials for those applications for their separation performance has to be tested under flow as well. Since separation processes run with mixtures of different components, measuring several breakthrough curves results in thermodynamic mixture equilibria - mixture sorption isotherms, that are hardly accessible with static manometric sorption characterization. This enables the determination of sorption selectivities in gaseous and liquid phase.
The determination of breakthrough curves is the foundation of many other processes, like the pressure swing adsorption. Within this process, the loading of one adsorber is equivalent to a breakthrough experiment.