(685d) Investigation of Heat Transfer and Adsorption in Indirect Heated Adsorbent Beds

Investigation
of heat transfer and adsorption in indirect heated adsorbent beds

G.
Salazar Duarte^1,2, Dr.-Ing. B.
Schürer¹, Dr.-Ing. C. Voss¹, Prof. Dr.-Ing. D. Bathen²¹ Linde AG, München/Germany

²
Universität
Duisburg-Essen, Duisburg/ Germany

The cycle time of industrial Temperature Swing Adsorption (TSA)
processes usually ranges from several hours to days. The reason for this long
cycle time is the usage of purge gas for heating and cooling the system (direct
heating), which limits the application of TSA processes to the removal of trace
components. In order
to reduce cycle time and to separate larger quantities of impurities a more
efficient heating strategy has to be considered and a system to remove heat
during adsorption has to be implemented. This can be achieved, for example, by
using a shell and tube heat exchanger type adsorber. The cycle time can be
reduced significantly by the indirect heating and cooling. Also the adsorbed
component can be recovered with high purities since the bed is heated indirectly
and not with a regeneration gas. During adsorption the released heat can be
removed by a heat transfer fluid, which flows through the shell side. The
advantages obtained through the indirect heat exchange can be used for the
separation of CO₂ from industrial flue gases where a relatively
large amount of CO₂ has to be separated.

It is very important to understand the heating and cooling
processes since these can significantly influence the process design of the
indirect heated and cooled TSA process. Therefore, an experimental set up was
built in order to investigate the heat transfer characteristics as well as the
adsorption of indirect heated adsorbers. The preliminary results are
encouraging making this process an alternative for carbon capture.