Abstract
Adsorption equilibrium isotherms of hydrogen and methane are reported for the temperature range 303-333 K and pressure up to 4 MPa. The adsorbent was 5A molecular sieve (supplied by Rhone Poulenc industries Ltd.). Experimental data were obtained using a static system for gas-solid adsorption. The Langmuir adsorption equilibrium equation gave excellent predictions. Adsorption of hydrogen and methane on 5A molecular sieve is purely physical since the isosteric heat of adsorption was found to be equal to 9.889 and 14.804 kJ mole-1 for hydrogen and methane, respectively.
Highlights
The increasing importance of adsorption processes for the separation of gaseous mixtures is due to the high selectivity and adsorption capacity of solid adsorbents, the less extreme operation conditions needed and the small energy consumption required
Some interest has been shown in adsorption of hydrogen and methane on 5A molecular sieve due to the necessity of recovering hydrogen from refinery off-gas streams
BET and other equations that represent multi-layer adsorption were excluded because it is unlikely that multi-layer adsorption could have occurred in this study were all temperatures above the critical[2]
Summary
The increasing importance of adsorption processes for the separation of gaseous mixtures is due to the high selectivity and adsorption capacity of solid adsorbents, the less extreme operation conditions needed and the small energy consumption required. The advantages are especially attractive when the problem is the separation of light gases such as methane, ethane, propane and other typical hydrocarbons of gaseous refinery streams, since their separation by distillation or absorption requires expensive high pressure units. Some interest has been shown in adsorption of hydrogen and methane on 5A molecular sieve due to the necessity of recovering hydrogen from refinery off-gas streams. Limitation are placed on the usefulness of these data for the design of commercial molecular sieve-based separation systems, since a large part of these data was obtained at temperatures and pressures which are not ordinarily considered practical from a commercial stand point. In this research reported fundamental equilibrium adsorption data obtained for hydrogen and methane on a single sample of 5A molecular sieve. A metal stem tip was selected instead of a soft stem tip to avert destruction of the valve seat in the event that particulate matter should escape from the adsorption chamber, enter the valve and score the valve seat
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