Analysis of the contact time in a cyclic thermal swing adsorption process

Abstract

In this study were performed dynamic simulations of a cyclic thermal swing adsorption (TSA) process to analyze the effects of contact time on the dynamic behaviors and were compared the breakthrough curves of simulations with those of experiments. The fixed bed of TSA is charged with activated carbon as an adsorbent to purify and regenerate the ternary mixtures consisting of benzene, toluene, and p-xylene. The conditions are nonequilibrium, nonisothermal, and nonadiabatic. The cyclic steady-state (CSS) cycles are obtained under various conditions by dynamic simulations. That is to say, this work perceived the influences of purge gas velocity and bed length on breakthrough curves, CSS convergence time, cyclic operating step time, purge gas consumed, regeneration energy requirement, and adsorption ability at CSS.