A Rotating Adsorber for Multistage Cyclic Processes:  Principle and Experimental Demonstration in the Separation of Paraffins

• Published in: Industrial & engineering chemistry research 2001-01, Vol.40 (1), p.357-363
• Main Authors: Babich, Igor V, van Langeveld, A. Dick, Zhu, Weidong, Bakker, Wridzer J. W, Moulijn, Jacob A
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adsorption; Applied sciences; Chemical engineering; Chemistry; Exact sciences and technology; General and physical chemistry; Solid-gas interface; Surface physical chemistry
• ISSN: 0888-5885; 1520-5045
• DOI: 10.1021/ie000456p

A rotating adsorber, which combines different steps of a cyclic separation process into a single unit, is described. Its design provides for the simultaneous exposure of the various tubular adsorbers of the rotor to the different steps of the process, thus ensuring a continuous operation. The separation of normal and branched paraffins over zeolite 5A is used as a model process to illustrate the experimental performance of the adsorber in comparison to that of a fixed-bed adsorber. Equilibrium adsorption data for n- and i-butane individually were used to determine the optimal experimental conditions. The distribution of the tubular adsorbers over the different sections of the rotating adsorber was based on fixed-bed experiments. Under the experimental conditions chosen, the effluents of the uptake and regeneration sections of the rotating adsorber have a constant composition, containing only i- and n-butane, respectively. The rotating adsorber shows a long-term continuous high efficiency of separation.