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Equilibrium‐limited periodic separating reactors
Author(s) -
Vaporciyan Garo G.,
Kadlec R. H.
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
aiche journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 167
eISSN - 1547-5905
pISSN - 0001-1541
DOI - 10.1002/aic.690330810
Subject(s) - pressure swing adsorption , chemistry , stoichiometry , isothermal process , thermodynamics , fraction (chemistry) , yield (engineering) , reversible reaction , chemical equilibrium , catalysis , sorption , equilibrium constant , thermodynamic equilibrium , adsorption , chromatography , organic chemistry , physics
A new unit operation is presented that utilizes a rapid feed pressure swing cycle in a bed packed with catalyst and adsorbent to effect both reaction and separation. This hybrid device combines features of a cyclic‐steady‐state pressure swing adsorber with those of a flow‐forced catalytic reactor. Feed sequences for the periodic separating reactor (PSR) are those of rapid, single‐bed pressure swing adsorbers (PSA). Only the case of extremely fast reactions is considered here. A perturbed reaction‐sorption equilibrium model is formulated and solved for isothermal operation for different equilibrium constants and reaction stoichiometries. The capacity and separation performance for an equilibrium‐limited PSR (EPSR) can be of the same order of magnitude as PSA alone. For reactions involving a single reactant or single product, the principal component in a particular exit stream depends upon both the reaction stoichiometry and feed fraction of the process cycle. The pressure dependency of the reaction equilibrium expression is the cause of separation reversals as parameters are varied.