Role of heat dissipation on carbon dioxide capture performance in biomethane upgrading system using pressure swing adsorption

Abstract

The generation of huge amount of heat from the processes adversely affects the separation and purification performance. The scarcity of studies on the heat transfer effects on breakthrough curves and bed temperature profile of biomethane upgrading process in the literature prompt us to investigate these effects in a greater detail. In this work, a multi-component adsorption model is built to emulate the heat transfer effects on the performance of biomethane upgrading process under three heat dissipation systems i.e., rigorous, thin wall, and adiabatic. Adiabatic system represents the existing industrial purification technology being practiced today. Adiabatic system prohibits heat exchange between beds. In this work, the rigorous system which allows maximum heat transfer between adsorbing and desorbing beds shows the highest methane purity of 97%, followed by thin wall (93%) and adiabatic (92%) systems. The rigorous system also is capable of reaching the highest methane recovery of 80%, followed by thin wall (77%) and adiabatic (76%) systems. The highest biomethane upgrading performance is largely due to the comprehensive nature and efficient heat dissipation by the rigorous system.