Experimental Validation of a Multidimensional Model for an Indirect Temperature Swing Adsorption Unit

Conventional temperature swing adsorption (TSA) is mainly applied for the removal of trace contaminants. Indirectly heated and cooled adsorbers were developed to make bulk separation economically feasible. A quasi-continuous TSA process to remove CO₂ from an N₂/CO₂ mixture with a pilot plant is established. The experimentally determined data are taken to validate and to adjust a 2D simulation model. For the validation, the CO₂ desorption, the N₂ recovery rate as well as the axial temperature profile are compared. The successful model validation can be seen in the good agreement between simulation and experimental results. Moreover, this process is able to separate high amounts of CO₂ and to produce a nearly CO₂-free product stream.