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Design and performance analysis of compressed air adsorption dryer with heatless regeneration mode

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Abstract

In many industrial processes compressed air free from traces of water vapour is essential. Adsorption dryer with heatless regeneration is used to treat air after compression to ultra-low dew point. A simple step by step design procedure for this dryer is presented. In this study, the adsorption dryer is developed based on layout design procedure, and optimal parametric conditions are obtained based on experimental design. Then the effect of process parameters on adsorption performance is studied for optimal conditions. The purge air required to achieve a varied range of pressure dew point of dry air at required operating pressure is suggested. The results revealed that a heatless regenerated adsorption system is suitable for the applications which involve feed air inlet temperature ranging from 25 to 45 °C, feed air operating pressure ranging from 5 bar, and pressure dew point of product dry air ranging from -40 to -70 °C.

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Abbreviations

\({p}_{o}\) :

Absolute operating pressure

g:

Acceleration due to gravity

CSAadsorber :

Adsorber cross-sectional area

Vadsorber :

Adsorber volume

tL :

Adsorption time

Å:

Angstrom

Ɛ:

Bed voidage

m3/min:

Cubic metre per minute

°C:

Degree Celsius

DPT:

Dew point temperature

DBT:

Dry bulb temperature

tdwell :

Dwell time

Dp :

Effective particle diameter

\({RD}_{p}\) :

Effective particle diameter

Ve :

Effective volume flow referred to 1 bar

Ti :

Feed air inlet temperature

µfluid :

Fluid absolute viscosity

ėfluid :

Fluid density

fp :

Friction factor

Vm :

Gas superficial velocity

µ:

Gas viscosity

g:

Gram

gwv/m3 :

Gram water vapour per cubic meter

gwv/min:

Gram water vapour per minute

hp:

Horse power

Kw:

KiloWatt

kg:

Kilogram

L:

Length of bed

lpm:

Litre per minute

Ki :

Load factor

log:

Logarithmic value

MTZ:

Mass transfer zone

Phm :

Mean power requirement

m/s:

Meter per second

m:

Metre

hfilling-min :

Minimum filling height

hc :

Moisture load per cycle

NRV:

Non return valve

Nu:

Nusselt number

Vo :

Operating volume flow

Voc :

Operating volume per unit of time

Vregen air-outlet :

Outlet regeneration volume flow rate

Sp :

Particle surface area

Vp :

Particle volume

%:

Percent

PDPT:

Pressure dew point temperature

Δp adsorber :

Pressure drop

PSA:

Pressure swing adsorption

mdesiccant :

Quantity of desiccant

Vregen air :

Regeneration volume flow

R2 :

Regression coefficient

RH:

Relative humidity

Re:

Reynolds number

s:

Second

\({S}_{rh}\) :

Secondary relative humidity

Seq SS:

Sequential sum of squares

m2/s:

Square meter per second

U:

Superficial velocity

P-Value:

The attained level of significance

Vregen air :

Volume flow rate of regeneration air

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Coimbatore Institute of Engineering and Technology, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, India

    V Sureshkannan

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, Tamilnadu, India

    S Vijayan

  3. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Anil Neerukonda Institute of Technology & Sciences, Sangivalasa, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India

    V R Lenin

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  1. V Sureshkannan
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  2. S Vijayan
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  3. V R Lenin
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Correspondence to V Sureshkannan.

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Sureshkannan, V., Vijayan, S. & Lenin, . . Design and performance analysis of compressed air adsorption dryer with heatless regeneration mode. Heat Mass Transfer 58, 631–641 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-021-03136-4

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