Understanding Complex Structured Adsorbent Contactors Via 3-D CFD Modeling

The primary objective of this work is to carry out a comprehensive modeling, theoretical study and partly experimental evaluation of the performance of a structured adsorbent contactor for gas separation applications. A rigorous two dimensional model including mass, momentum and energy balances and appropriate boundary conditions will be developed and used to investigate the adsorption and desorption dynamics of CO₂ capture from flue gas in a parallel passage adsorbent contactor covered with zeolite 13X  under different conditions. The model will be expanded to a very rigorous 3-D model in order to deal with real applicable systems of triangular and square channels. Results will be compared to the parallel channel. Behavior of the system in terms of break through curves, loading, pressure, velocity, concentration and temperature profiles needed to understand the fundamentals of the structured bed adsorbent contactor will be investigated. Then, experimental studies will be used to develop a one dimensional pressure drop correlation which can be substituted with Ergun equation for packed bed systems used in the Dynamic Adsorption Process Simulator (DAPS), developed at USC, to be able to include structured adsorbent contactors in the developed in house one dimensional code which requires much less calculation and time cost. The simulation results will be compared to the full 2-D and 3-D models. Lastly, the most important concern about the use of structured adsorbent contactors is to ensure plug flow conditions will be sustained to avoid premature breakthrough. The design and operational requirements necessary to satisfy this condition will be developed. This presentation will discuss the latest results obtained by Ritter and his group.