Adsorption in honeycomb adsorber by BEM

作者：Stimec T; Hribersek M; Ravnik J^*; Basic S

来源：Engineering Analysis with Boundary Elements, 2014, 41: 103-110.

DOI：10.1016/j.enganabound.2014.01.010

• Subdomain boundary element method
• Laminar viscous fluid flow
• Mass transfer
• Adsorption
• Honeycomb adsorber

A computational scheme based on the subdomain Boundary Element Method is presented for the numerical simulation of the adsorption process in a honeycomb adsorber. Incompressible flow of air mixed with a very low concentration (%26lt; 1%) of n-butane in a carbon coated adsorber channel is considered. A new model accounting for the mass transfer due to the adsorption process at the channel walls is presented. A diffusion-convection transport equation for species transport is solved for the mass transfer in the fluid, whereas the mass transfer from the fluid phase to the solid phase, driven by the adsorbent concentration gradient near the wall, which takes place until adsorption equilibrium is reached in the adsorbent layer, is modelled in a form of a dynamic boundary condition for adsorbent concentration. Adsorption equilibrium is calculated with the use of the Dubinin-Radushkevich equilibrium model. Due to very low concentration, the isothermal case is computed and the breakthrough concentration curves at the outlet of the adsorber channel are compared with experimental and computational results. A detailed analysis of local values of the Sherwood number, concentrations at the wall and partitioning coefficient at different Re number values shows that the proposed numerical model accurately predicts the adsorption dynamics inside a honeycomb adsorber, and can be extended to other types of surface adsorbers.

• 出版日期2014-4