David E. Tevault

Non-Isothermal Effects of PSA for Air Purification

In certain applications, PSA systems filter contaminants only under transient conditions. This paper presents both experimental and modeling work for the transient, non-isothermal behavior of PSA for air purification. The solutes considered include the refrigerant vapors R-22, R-11 and water vapor and adsorbents activated carbon and 13X molecular sieve. Simultaneous concentration samples at four in-bed locations, product and purge are recorded. In-bed temperature profiles are reported for complete cycles. The in-bed profiles are shown to provide a detailed representation of the progress of the concentration wave for the transient behavior. The non-isothermal effects are examined for several conditions including inert packing, non-adsorbing carrier and a varying purge to feed ratios. Chemical contaminant filtration is presented for strongly and weakly adsorbed vapors. Good agreement is achieved between the model simulation and the measured PSA data.