A rotating adsorber for multistage cyclic processes: Principle and experimental demonstration in the separation of paraffins

A rotating adsorber, which combines different steps of a cyclic separation process into a single unit, is described. Its design provides for the simul taneous exposure of the various tubular adsorbers of the rotor to the diffe rent steps of the process, thus ensuring a continuous operation. The separa tion of normal and branched paraffins over zeolite 5A is used as a model pr ocess to illustrate the experimental performance of the adsorber in compari son to that of a fixed-bed adsorber. Equilibrium adsorption data for n- and i-butane individually were used to determine the optimal experimental cond itions. The distribution of the tubular adsorbers over the different sectio ns of the rotating adsorber was based on fixed-bed experiments. Under the e xperimental 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.