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Multi-component adsorptive separation: use of lumping in PSA process simulation

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Abstract

Being a discrete-continuous process, approach to a cyclic steady state in computer simulation of Pressure Swing Adsorption is through iterative procedures and simulation itself is quite computation-intensive. Considering the fact that simulation based design itself is an iterative process, it is imperative that simulation be computationally very efficient and phenomenologically as close to the physics of adsorption-desorption as possible. Utility of lumping the components of a gas mixture into fewer pseudo-components was computationally examined in the simulation of a representative multi-step cycle of a pressure swing based adsorptive separation process applied to natural gas treatment. The actual feed had six components competing for adsorbent sites. Five different lumping alternatives were studied and compared with the simulation results for a full six-component simulation under identical equipment dimensions and operating conditions. Lumping could reduce the number of equations to be solved by more than half and the corresponding reduction in CPU time was about 90%. The six component mixture of Natural Gas was found to be sufficiently represented by two pseudo-components. The predicted recovery (in terms of Methane and Ethane) and quality (in terms of content of higher hydrocarbons) of the raffinate differed by not more than 0.8% and 0.02% respectively. The paper discusses possible heuristics for decision-making regarding appropriate lumping as verified by extensive simulation studies.

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Abbreviations

A :

Cross sectional area of the column, m2

b i :

Adsorption equilibrium constant for ith component on the solid surface at the operating temperature, m3/mole

C v :

Valve coefficient, dimensionless

d p :

Diameter of a spherical adsorbent particle or equivalent diameter for a non-spherical particle, m

ε :

External voidage in the bed packed with the adsorbent particles, dimensionless

Φ:

Sphericity factor of the adsorbent particle

dt :

Step size for temporal discretization, s

dz :

Step size for spatial discretization, m

L :

Height of the adsorbent layer packed inside the column, m

MW i :

Molecular weight of ith component, kg/kmole

P :

Absolute Pressure, Pa(a)

Q Feed :

Volumetric feed rate of feed Natural Gas at standard conditions, m3/hr at STP conditions

q i :

Average concentration of ith component adsorbed in the volume of adsorbent particles, moles/m3 solid

q imax :

Maximum monolayer adsorption capacity of ith component on the adsorbent surface, moles/m3 solid

R :

Ideal Gas Law constant, Pa⋅m3/mole/K

t :

Temporal coordinate, s

T :

Operating temperature, K

t cycle :

Total cycle time, s

t s :

Staggering time, s

u :

Superficial velocity of the fluid, m/s

y i :

Fluid phase mole fraction of ith component, dimensionless

z :

Spatial coordinate, m

C1 :

Methane

C1+ :

Ethane and higher alkanes

C2 :

Ethane

C2+ :

Propane and higher alkanes

C3 :

Propane

C4’s:

i-Butane + n-Butane

CSS:

Cyclic steady state

IAST:

Ideal Adsorbed Solution Theory

i-C4 :

i-Butane or Isobutane

g :

Gas phase

l :

Liquid phase

N B :

Number of Beds

n-C4 :

n-Butane or Normal Butane

N max  :

Maximum number of components in the system

N PC :

Number of pseudo-components

N r :

Number of lumping rules applied

N s :

Number of steps in the cycle

PSA:

Pressure Swing Adsorption

PVSA:

Pressure Vacuum Swing Adsorption

scf :

Supercritical fluid phase

SCMPH:

Standard cubic metres per hour

SMB:

Simulated Moving Bed

STP:

Standard Conditions of Temperature and Pressure, 105 Pa absolute and 273.15 K

TSA:

Temperature Swing Adsorption

VSA:

Vacuum Swing Adsorption

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  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay, Powai, Mumbai, 400076, India

    Pramathesh R. Mhaskar & Arun S. Moharir

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  1. Pramathesh R. Mhaskar
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  2. Arun S. Moharir
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Correspondence to Arun S. Moharir.

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Mhaskar, P.R., Moharir, A.S. Multi-component adsorptive separation: use of lumping in PSA process simulation. Adsorption 17, 701–721 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10450-011-9355-1

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