Yj. Liu et al., Solvent vapor recovery by pressure swing adsorption. III. Comparison of simulation with experiment for the butane-activated carbon system, SEP SCI TEC, 34(8), 1999, pp. 1545-1576
A fully predictive (no adjustable parameters), nonisothermal, multicomponen
t mathematical model was developed and used to simulate a pressure swing ad
sorption (PSA) process designed for the separation and recovery of concentr
ated butane vapor from nitrogen using BAX activated carbon. Nearly quantita
tive agreement with experiment was realized with this model over a wide ran
ge of process conditions, and for both the transient and periodic state pro
cess dynamics and the periodic state process performance. The model also ve
rified some unique characteristics of this PSA process, and it revealed som
e of the subtleties associated with accurately simulating a PSA-solvent vap
or recovery (SVR) process. These subtleties included the need to account fo
r the adsorbate heat capacity and the temperature dependence of the gas-pha
se physical properties. No PSA models in the literature have included both
of these features, which were critical to the accurate prediction of the he
at effects in this PSA-SVR process.