GAS DRYING EQUIPMENT (SOLID BED

DEHYDRATION)
Solid bed dehydration systems work on the principle of adsorption.
Adsorption involves a form of adhesion between the surface of the solid desiccant
and the water vapor in the gas. The water forms an extremely thin film that is held
to the desiccant surface by forces of attraction, but there is no chemical reaction.
The desiccant is a solid, granulated drying or dehydrating medium with an
extremely large effective surface area per unit weight because of a multitude of
microscopic pores and capillary openings. A typical desiccant might have as much
as 4 million square feet of surface area per pound.
Chemical adsorbents (desiccant) find very limited application in gas
processing. Adsorbents that allow physical adsorption hold the adsorbate on their
surface by surface forces. Some materials order of increasing cost are; bauxite ore
(Al2O3 H20), consisting primarily of alumina, alumina; silica gels and silica-alumina
gels; and molecular sieves. Activated carbon, a widely used adsorbent, possesses
no capacity for water adsorption and is therefore not used for dehydration purposes,
though it may be used for the removal of certain impurities. Bauxite also is not used
much because it contains iron and is thus unsuitable for sour gases.
The dry bed has the advantage of producing very low dew points, which are
required for cryogenic gas plants, and is adaptable to very large changes in flow
rates. A dry bed can handle high contact temperatures. Disadvantage is that the
desiccants are sensitive to poisoning with liquids or other impurities in the gas.

Process Description: Solid Bed Dehydration

Multiple desiccant beds are used in cyclic operation to dry the gas on a
continuous basis. The number and arrangement of the desiccant beds may vary
from two towers, adsorbing alternately, to many towers. Three separate functions or
cycles must alternately be performed in each dehydrator. They are an adsorbing
or gas drying cycle, a heating or regeneration cycle, and a cooling cycle.
The figure 2.1 on the next page is the flow diagram for a typical two-tower
solid desiccant dehydration unit. The essential components of any solid desiccant
dehydration system are:

Figure 2.1 Simplified Flow Diagram of a Solid Bed Dehydrator

In the drying cycle, the wet inlet gas first passes through an inlet separator
where free liquids, entrained mist, and solid particles are removed, This is a very
important part of the system because free liquids can damage or destroy the
desiccant bed and solids may plug it.
In the adsorption cycle, the wet inlet gas flows downward through the
tower. The adsorbable components are adsorbed at rates dependent on their
chemical nature, the size of their molecules, and the size of the pores. The water
molecules are adsorbed first in the top layers of the desiccant bed. Dry hydrocarbon
gases are adsorbed throughout the bed. As the upper layers of desiccant become
saturated with water, the water in the wet gas stream begins displacing the
previously adsorbed hydrocarbons in the lower desiccant layers. Liquid
hydrocarbons will also be absorbed and will fill pore spaces that would otherwise be
available for water molecules.
For each component in the inlet gas stream, there will be a section of bed
depth, from top to bottom, where the desiccant is saturated with that component
and where the desiccant below is just starting to adsorb that component. The depth
of bed from saturation to initial adsorption is known as the mass transfer zone.
This is simply a zone or section of the bed where a component is transferring its
mass from the gas stream to the surface of the desiccant.
As the flow of gas continues, the mass transfer zones move downward
through the bed and water displaces the previously adsorbed gases until finally the
entire bed is saturated with water vapor. If the entire bed becomes completely
saturated with water vapor, the outlet gas is just as wet as the inlet gas. Obviously,

the towers must be switched from the adsorption cycle to the regeneration cycle
(heating and cooling) before the desiccant bed is completely saturated with
water.
At any given time, at least one of the towers will be adsorbing while the other
towers will be in the process of being heated or cooled to regenerate the desiccant.
When a tower is switched to the regeneration cycle some wet gas (that is, the inlet
gas downstream of the inlet gas separator) is heated to temperatures of 450F to
600F in the high-temperature heater and routed to the tower to remove the
previously adsorbed water. As the temperature within the tower is increased, the
water captured within the pores of the desiccant turns to steam and is absorbed by
the natural gas. This gas leaves the top of the tower and is cooled by the
regeneration gas cooler. When the gas is cooled the saturation level of water vapor
is lowered significantly and water is condensed. The water is separated in the
regeneration gas separator and the cool, saturated regeneration gas is recycled to
be dehydrated. This can be done by operating the dehydration tower at a lower
pressure
than
the
tower
being
regenerated
or by recompressing the regeneration gas.
Once the bed has been dried in this manner, it is necessary to flow cool gas
through the tower to return it to normal operating temperatures (about 100F to
120F) before placing it back in service to dehydrate gas. The cooling gas could
either be wet gas or gas that has already been dehydrated. If wet gas is used, it
must be dehydrated after being used as cooling gas. A, hot tower will not
sufficiently dehydrate the gas.
The switching of the beds is controlled by a time controller that performs switching
operations at specified times in the cycle. The length of the different phases can
vary considerably. Longer cycle times will require larger beds, but will increase the
bed life. A typical two-bed cycle might have an eight-hour adsorption period with six
hours of heating and two hours of cooling for regeneration. Adsorption units with
three beds typically have one bed being regenerated, one fresh bed adsorbing, and
one bed in the middle of the drying cycle.
Internal or external insulation for the adsorbers may be used. The main purpose of
internal insulation is to reduce the total regeneration gas requirements and costs.
Internal insulation eliminates the need to heat and cool the steel walls of the
adsorber vessel. Normally, a castable re factory lining is used for internal insulation.
The refractory must be applied and properly cured to prevent liner cracks. Liner
cracks will per mit some of the wet gas to bypass the desiccant bed. Only a small
amount of wet, bypassed gas is needed to cause freezeups in cryogenic plants.
Ledges installed every few feet along the vessel wall can help eliminate this
problem.

PRESSURE-SWING ADSORPTION
Pressure swing adsorption is a widely used technology for the purification of
gases. This regeneration process is accomplished by reducing the pressure. At the
moderate pressures found in compressed air systems, such as 100 pounds per
square inch, an adsorbent can support a certain amount of moisture. When that
pressure is dropped to ambient air pressure, the adsorbent can only support a
smaller amount of moisture. By swinging the pressure from high to low, it is possible
to adsorb large quantities of moisture at the higher pressure, and then release that
moisture at the low pressure. This technique is called pressure swing adsorption. By
alternating between two adsorbent filled vessels, one vessel being on line and
removing moisture at high pressure, and the other off line releasing the trapped
moisture at low pressure, it is possible to thoroughly dry a gas.
One best example is the PSA scheme for air separation. Pressure swing
adsorption relies on air being filtered through aluminosilicate minerals known as
zeolites molecular sieves. The one used for PSA oxygen has been specially designed
so that nitrogen gas is adsorbed onto it while oxygen (and argon) pass straight
through. The zeolite is quickly saturated with nitrogen, so two zeolite beds are
usually used together, one filtering air while the other is regenerated.
Oxygen needs to be produced in large volumes for many applications.
Perhaps the most common of these are in medicine and in the pulp and paper
industry. Pressure swing adsorption is most useful for small applications such as
oxygen production in the home for asthma sufferers.
This process is very environmentally friendly and the technique is also
potentially able to be used to remove other gases (such as CO2) from industrial
waste gas streams.

Process Description: Pressure-swing

Adsorption

Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) is a cost-effective method of producing high-purity

nitrogen or oxygen. All Gazcon generators are based on PSA technology.

1) A Gazcon generator consists of two cylinders storing

either Carbon Molecular Sieves (CMS) or Zeolite
pellets. CMS is used to produce nitrogen. Zeolite is
used
to
generate
oxygen.
An external buffer tank stores the pure nitrogen or
oxygen gas.

2) The PSA process starts as clean and dry compressed

air enters the first cylinder (left).
The unwanted gas is adsorbed by the pellets at high
pressure, but the molecules you want pass through.
The resulting high-purity gas is stored in the buffer
tank.
During this step of the cycle, the second cylinder (right)

is cleaned.

3) Next, the pressure between the two cylinders is

equalised.

4) When the pressure drops in the left cylinder and the

pellets are saturated, the waste products are blown
out
through
the
exhaust
system.
In the right cylinder pressure builds up until the
pressure between the two cylinders is once again
equalised.
The process is repeated and a constant production of
gas is established.