Adsorption, Design of Adsorbers

Breakthrough curves, particularly for coadsorption, should be found experimentally under conditions as close as possible to the operating conditions. Methods to cal- 

With a favorable equilibrium and a high adsorption rate, the adsorption may be carried out in a single stage adsorber with packing. If, in a single stage, the desired concentration is not reached, two or more adsorption stages are connected in series. This is realized by cross or countercurrent flow of the adsorbent and the fed carrier phase. 

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Variations of Adsorption, Design of Adsorbers 305 Table 4-10. Mass and heat transfer in an adsorbent packed bed. 

Experimentation has shown that different adsorption isotherms are occasionally obtained, for data taken during adsorption or desorption under the same eonditions. This hysteresis in the sorption isotherm (Fig. 1-36) must be considered in the design of adsorbers and thermal dryers. The hysteresis phenomena can be explained by capillary condensation. 

The design of adsorbers depends on the adsorption equilibrium (static loading capac-... 

Chapter 3 introduces the concepts of adsorption equilibrium with the primary purpose of discussing the applicabilities and limits of some simple expressions which are used in later sections on design of adsorbers. Adsorption equilibrium is the fundamental factor in designing adsorption operations. 

The Aromax process was developed in the early 1970s by Toray Industries, Inc. in Japan (95—98). The adsorption column consists of a horizontal series of independent chambers containing fixed beds of adsorbent. Instead of a rotary valve, a sequence of specially designed on—off valves under computer control is used to move inlet and withdrawal ports around the bed. Adsorption is carried out in the Hquid phase at 140°C, 785—980 kPA, and 5—13 L/h. PX yields per pass is reported to exceed 90% with a typical purity of 99.5%. The first Aromax unit was installed at Toray s Kawasaki plant in March 1973. In 1994, IFP introduced the Eluxyl adsorption process (59,99). The proprietary adsorbent used is designated SPX 3000. Individual on-off valves controlled by a microprocessor are used. Raman spectroscopy to used to measure concentration profiles in the column. A 10,000 t/yr demonstration plant was started and successfully operated at Chevron s Pascagoula plant from 1995—96. IFP has Hcensed two hybrid units. 

Liquid adsorption processes hold a prominent position ia several appHcations for the production of high purity chemicals on a commodity scale. Many of these processes were attractive when they were first iatroduced to the iadustry and continue to iacrease ia value as improvements ia adsorbents, desorbents, and process designs are made. The UOP Parex process alone has seen three generations of adsorbent and four generations of desorbent. Similarly, Hquid adsorption processes can be applied to a much more diverse range of problems than those presented ia Table 3. 

Adsorption The design of gas-adsorption equipment is in many ways analogous to the design of gas-absorption equipment, with a solid adsorbent replacing the liqiiid solvent (see Secs. 16 and 19). Similarity is evident in the material- and energy-balance equations as well as in the methods employed to determine the column height. The final choice, as one would expect, rests with the overall process economics. 

Equilibrium Considerations - Most of the adsorption data available from the literature are equilibrium data. Equilibrium data are useful in determining the maximum adsorbent loading which can be obtained for a specific adsorbate-adsorbent system under given operating conditions. However, equilibrium data by themselves are insufficient for design of an adsorption system. Overall mass transfer rate data are also necessary. 

Engineering Considerations To effect the good engineering design of an activated carbon adsorption system, it is first necessary to obtain information on the following the actual cubic feet per minute (ACFM) of air to be processed by the adsorber, the temperature of gas stream, the material(s) to be absorbed, the concentration of the material to be adsorbed, and if the intended application is air pollution control such as odor control - then the odor threshold of the material to be adsorbed. In addition, data is needed on the presence of other constituents in the gas stream, and whether or not solvent recovery is economical. 

Solvent reeovery systems would also neeessitate the speeifieation of eondenser duties, distillation tower sizes, holding tanks, piping, and valves. It is important to note that the engineering design of an adsorption system should be based on pilot data for the partieular system. Information ean usually be obtained direetly from the adsorbent manufaeturer. The overall size of the unit is determined primarily by eeonomie eonsiderations, balaneing the operating eosts against the eapital eosts. 

The adsorption process generally is of an exothermal nature. With increasing temperature and decreasing adsorbate concentration the adsorption capacity decreases. For the design of adsorption processes it is important to know the adsorption capacity at constant temperature in relation to the adsorbate concentration. Figure 11 shows the adsorption isotherms for several common solvents. 

Fixed-bed adsorption may give a higher adsoiption area per unit volume than any other type of adsorber. The point of saturation of the bed is called the breakthrough point. By knowing this point one can determine operation schedules. In designing fixed-bed adsorbers, the... 

A typical simulation result is shown in Fig. 3. Under the given conditions, the concentration of fuel gas in bulk phase at the exit (Fig. 3a) is zero and the concentration of evaporative fuel gas at solid phase (Fig. 3b) at the exit did not reach the equilibrium concentration of activated carbon during adsorption. These results indicate that the canister of ORVR system is properly designed to adsorb the evaporative fuel gas. The temperature changes in canister (Fig. 3 c) during the operation remains in the acceptable range. The test results for different weather conditions showed that the canister design in this study can fulfill the required performance. 

The adsorption action of activated carbon may be explained in terms of the surface tension (or energy per unit surface area) exhibited by the activated particles whose specific surface area is very large. The molecules on the surface of the particles are subjected to unbalanced forces due to unsatisfied bonds and this is responsible for the attachment of other molecules to the surface. The attractive forces are, however, relatively weak and short range, and are called Van der Waals forces, and the adsorption process under these conditions is termed as a physical adsorption (physisorption) process. In this case, the adsorbed molecules are readily desorbed from the surface. Adsorption resulting from chemical interaction with surface molecules is termed as chemisorption. In contrast to the physical process described for the adsorption on carbon, the chemisorption process is characterized by stronger forces and irreversibility. It may, however, be mentioned that many adsorption phenomena involve both physical and chemical processes. They are, therefore, not easily classified, and the general term, sorption, is used to designate the mechanism of the process. 

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