Temperature swing adsorption process with indirect cooling and heating

Experimental results for a new TSA process including a rapid heat exchanger for indirect cooling and heating are presented. Experiments were performed for the removal and recovery of ethane from a nitrogen stream (simulating a VOC in air). In addition, a simplified one-dimensional nonisothermal nonequilibrium model of the process was developed. As temperature swing is the driving force in the process, specific efforts were made to evaluate the heat-transfer coefficient between the heating or cooling medium and the gas stream. From the combination of the experimental and numerical results, the influence of some parameters (e.g., regeneration temperature, initial feed composition) on the process efficiency, analyzed in terms of both recovered mass and energy consumption, was determined.