Standing Wave Design of 2-Zone Thermal Simulated Moving Bed Concentrator (TSMBC)

Abstract

A two-zone thermal SMB concentrator (TSMBC) can concentrate solutes and recover high purity solvents for dilute feeds. Literature design methods only provide a region of acceptable design parameters, thus requiring many trial-and-error simulations to determine the optimum design. In this study, a Standing Wave Design (SWD) method is developed for a two-zone TSMBC for linear and nonlinear isotherms, and verified with Aspen Chromatography simulations. SWD allows for direct solution of the optimal operating parameters for a TSMBC. A TSMBC is more effective for concentrating dilute solutions. As feed concentration increases, the enrichment factor decreases due to limited adsorbent capacity. A higher enrichment factor is obtained at the cost of a lower feed throughput and higher energy consumption. A TSMBC is more energy efficient than a single stage evaporator or temperature swing adsorption. It also has higher feed throughput and higher enrichment factor than Temperature Swing Adsorption (TSA) for dilute feeds.