Experimental and theoretical investigations on the cryogenic adsorption of light hydrocarbons in the temperature range of -80 °C und 0 °C

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Dieter Bathen
• Subject Area: Technical Thermodynamics ; Chemical and Thermal Process Engineering
• Term: from 2016 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 319276956

The removal of light hydrocarbons from exhaust air or process gas is important in multiple environmental and technical applications, but cannot be efficiently realized when it comes to separation of trace quantities. Even adsorption processes, though commonly used for removing trace quantities, do not provide the required separation efficiency under typical process conditions (ambient temperature and pressure). That is where the proposed project aims at. By lowering the temperature down to a temperature region of -80 °C to 0 °C we assume an increase of the adsorption capacity of the adsorbents so that trace quantities can safely be removed. But as lowering the temperature leads to an increase of adsorption capacity, the diffusion rate inside the adsorbents pore system decreases. Since there are no reliable data on the magnitude of both effects, the scientific issue of the proposed project is to quantify as to how the loading of the adsorbents increases and how strongly the kinetics decrease in between -80 °C to 0 °C. By a combination of experiments in a fixed bed adsorption reactor and dynamic simulations of the adsorption processes the influence of those opposing mechanisms should be evaluated.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants