Effect of Adsorbent Grain Size on the Pressure Swing Adsorption

Abstract

An analytical solution is obtained for a system of differential equations consisting of the equation for diffusion and absorption of a component in adsorbent grains and the balance equation for this component moving in the adsorbent layer.The technique for calculation of steady-state periodic adsorption processes based on expansion of a concentration signal into Fourier series of eigenfrequencies of this adsorption process is proposed. After decomposition each of the eigenwaves independently of the others is passed through the adsorbent layer, and at the output from this layer all this solutions for individual eigenwaves are summed. The solution to a problem of passing an arbitrary periodic concentration signal through the adsorbent layer is obtained as a result of summing the solutions for individual eigenwaves.The proposed method takes into account nonstationary diffusion processes inside the adsorbent grains. It makes possible to analyze effect of the adsorbent grain sizes on a pressure swing adsorption processes.