AIR PURIFICATION AND VAPOR RECOVERY BY PRESSURE SWING ADSORPTION: A COMPARISON OF SILICALITE AND ACTIVATED CARBON

Abstract

Air purification and vapor recovery by pressure swing adsorption (PSA) were experimentally investigated using the silicalite-DMMP-air system. The results from several cyclic steady-state PSA runs were compared at constant throughput with those from a previous study on the BPL activated carbon-DMMP-air system. The performance of BPL activated carbon was superior to that of silicalite because it demonstrated complete cleanup of the product effluent when starting from a saturated column, whereas, at similar process conditions, silicalite was able to cleanup only a portion of the product effluent. Nevertheless, both silicalite and BPL activated carbon respectively demonstrated enrichments (Y_e/Y_f ) of 12 and 15 using only moderate vacuum. However, there were significant differences in the shapes of the cyclic steady-state product and exhaust profiles which were attributed to differences in the 1) mass transfer rates, 2) adsorption capacities, or 3) possibly shapes of the adsorption isotherms.

KEYWORDS:

• Pressure swing adsorption
• Silicalite
• Activated carbon
• Mass transfer
• Adsorption capacities
• Adsorption isotherms

Additional information

Notes on contributors

JAMES A. RITTER

Present address: Westinghouse Savannah River Company, Savannah River Laboratory, Aiken, SC 29808.

RALPH T. YANG

To whom correspondence should be addressed.