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Heat and mass transfer during H2O/CO2 adsorption separation using activated alumina

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Abstract

Adsorption separation technology has great potential to separate H2O/CO2 mixture with 1–5% H2O to achieve high CO2 purity for industrial applications. However, there are few studies analyzing the concentration and velocity fields in an adsorption column and the characteristics of H2O/CO2 adsorption separation. A heat and mass transfer model of H2O/CO2 adsorption on aluminum activated F-200 was developed and validated experimentally to predict the breakthrough curves and the H2O/CO2 distributions in the gas and solid phases. The effects of mixture inlet velocity, inlet temperature, steam mole fraction and total pressure on the separation performance have been investigated numerically. As velocity increases, the breakthrough and equilibrium times decrease. The peak temperature gradually increases with increasing H2O concentration, temperature and pressure. Along the height of the adsorption column, the adsorption ratio, the ratio of the amount adsorbed to the equilibrium amount adsorbed first decreases and then increases with increasing H2O mole fraction, but first increases and then decreases with increasing pressure. The heat and mass transfer characteristics of the H2O/CO2 adsorption separation can provide a basis for high purity CO2 separation.

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Abbreviations

c p :

Specific heat (J kg−1 K−1)

C :

Molar concentration (mol m−3)

d :

Diameter (m)

D :

Diffusion coefficient (m2 s−1)

g :

Acceleration of gravity (m s−2)

h :

Heat transfer coefficient (kW m−2 K−1)

h fg :

Latent heat (kJ kg−1)

h i :

Condensation heat transfer coefficient between the adsorption column inner wall and gas(kW m−2 K−1)

h f :

Convective heat transfer coefficient between the gas and the adsorption column wall (kW m−2 K−1)

h ex :

Convective heat transfer coefficient between the external environment and the column wall out surface (kW m−2 K−1)

ΔH :

Adsorption heat (J mol−1)

k :

Thermal conductivity (W m−1 K−1)

K eq :

Mass transfer coefficient (s−1)

L :

Column length and diameter (m)

m :

Mass flux (kg m−2 s−1)

M :

Molecular weight (kg kmol−1)

ṅ in :

Inlet mole flow rate (mol s−1)

N :

Number of condenser sections

P :

Pressure (Pa)

q :

Heat flux (W m-2)

q j :

Adsorbed amount (mol kg-1)

q * :

Adsorption equilibrium concentration (mol kg-1)

R :

Ideal gas constant (kJ kg−1 K−1)

t :

Time (s)

T :

Temperature (K)

u :

Real velocity (m s−1)

u pdiff :

Molecular diffusion constant

u pkn :

Knudsen diffusion constant

V :

Molar volume (mol m-3)

X :

Mole fraction (-)

z :

Axial distance (m)

ax :

Axial direction

bed :

Adsorption column

g :

Gas

i :

Inner

j :

Component

mix :

Gas mixture

p :

Particle

pore :

Average pore

s :

Solid

w :

Wall

a v :

Thermal expansion coefficient (K−1)

a w ,a wl :

Ratio parameter

δ :

Wall thickness (m)

ε :

Porosity

µ :

Dynamic viscosity (kg m−1 s−1)

ρ :

Density (kg m-3)

Gr :

Grashof number

Nu :

Nusselt number

Re :

Reynolds number

Sc :

Schmidt number

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2016YFB0600105), the Beijing Scholars Program (2015 No. 022), Beijing Postdoctoral Research Foundation (2021-ZZ-112), the Fundamental Research Funds for Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture(X21016), Beijing Natural Science Foundation (No.3222027).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environment and Energy Engineering, Engineering and Architecture, Beijing University of Civil, 100044, Beijing, China

    Junhui Lu & Suilin Wang

  2. Key Laboratory for Thermal Science and Power Engineering of Ministry of Education, Department of Energy and Power Engineering, Tsinghua University, 100084, Beijing, China

    Junhui Lu, Haishan Cao & JunMing Li

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  1. Junhui Lu
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Correspondence to Junhui Lu or JunMing Li.

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Highlights

• A heat and mass transfer model was developed for H2O/CO2 adsorption in an activated alumina column.

• The effects of the velocity, mole fraction, temperature and pressure on the breakthrough curve are analyzed.

• The H2O and CO2 distributions in the gas and solid phases are studied under different conditions.

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Lu, J., Cao, H., Li, J. et al. Heat and mass transfer during H2O/CO2 adsorption separation using activated alumina. Heat Mass Transfer 58, 1771–1783 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-022-03206-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-022-03206-1

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