Theoretical study of parallel radial adsorber: a novel configuration of temperature swing gas adsorption bed

In this study, an innovative parallel radial adsorber (here after PRA) has been presented. The motivation behind developing such a configuration was to enhance the performance of adsorption bed by broadening the possible choices of adsorbent diameter. The proposed arrangement effectively reduces the pressure drop by increasing the gas flow contact area; thus, a smaller adsorbent can be applied in the PRA bed. To quantify the performance of the proposed configuration, the governing equations of the system including conservation of energy, mass (diffusion inside the particles and convection outside the particles) and momentum (Ergun equation) were developed and solved numerically. The pressure drop, break-through time, saturation percentage, and duration of regeneration step were chosen as the key factors for evaluating such a configuration. By applying the new configuration, a magnificent diminution of pressure drop resulted. Therefore, small particles which are opted as the adsorbing media will increase the mass transfer area and subsequently mass transfer rate. The capability of handling high flow rate by the proposed configuration offered good potential for reducing the cycle time. Besides showing this potential, owing to the size of the particles in PRA beds, this configuration enhanced the saturation percentage of the column from 88% (axial bed) to 98% for the case study of natural gas dehydration.