(615e) Process Modeling of Temperature Swing Adsorption for Combined Capture and Destruction of VOCs

With the purpose of reducing catalyst inventory needed for oxidation of VOCs and the amount of heat energy needed to regenerate the adsorbent, combining adsorption and oxidation in a single unit operation is expected to improve the overall performance of VOCs emission control systems while addressing the drawbacks of the current abatement processes. In this study, the performance of an integrated temperature swing adsorption and oxidation (TSAO) system (as schematically shown in the image) for adsorption and destruction of aromatic hydrocarbons as model VOC compounds was simulated. A two-bed, four-step TSA process consisting of adsorption, heating, desorption/oxidation, and cooling steps was considered as a base case to which more complex cycle configurations were compared. The TSAO configurations were evaluated based on their overall removal efficiency and energy consumption. The investigation included model development, parameter estimation, model validation, process optimization and parametric analysis. The modeling activities were implemented in gPROMS^®. The detailed analysis provides a basis to rationally design integrated separation-reaction processes in cyclic fashion for VOCs emission control.