Study of Heat-Exchange Dual Half Cylindrical and Multi-Coaxial Tubular Adsorbers in Pressure Swing Adsorption Process by Simulation

Pressure swing adsorption (PSA) plays an important role in the separation of gas mixtures. Whenhigh-pressure gas mixture enters the adsorber from the feed end, adsorption occurs and a product of enrichedweakly adsorbed component is obtained at the production end. The heat released during gas adsorption willincrease the bed temperature, which is unfavorable to adsorption. On the other hand, gas desorption is anendothermic process during adsorber depressization and the decrease of temperature caused by desorption isunfavorable to desorption. In the study, the traditional cylindrical adsorbennrs are replaced by heat-exchangedual half cylindrical and multi-coaxial tubular adsorbers. The dual half cylindrical adsorbers are designed tocontact and exchange heat to each other by lateral surface area. The multi-coaxial tubular adsorbers aredesigned to exchange heat to each other by the tube wall. The heat will exchange while one adsorber isundergoing adsorption and the neighboring bed operates at desorption such that the adsorption heat releasedfrom one bed can be transferred through the wall to the neighboring desorption bed which needs heat todesorb the adsorbing gases in an appropriate PSA operating sequence. This study plans to simulate theperformance of heat-exchange dual half cylindrical adsorber PSA process using modified Skarstrom cycle ingas mixture separation and compares it with the performance of the traditional cylindrical-adsorber PSA withthe same process. In the second year, the research is extended to study multi-coaxial tubular absorbers and todesign a practicable pressure swing adsorption process with high performance for gas separation.