Investigation of steam regeneration strategies for industrial-scale temperature-swing adsorption of benzene on activated carbon

Large-scale separation of substances present at low concentrations is readily performed by adsorption in packed beds that requires recurring energy-intensive regeneration of the adsorbent. The present work uses numerical simulations previously developed for industrial-scale packed-bed benzene sorption on activated carbon with temperature-swing regeneration by steam to investigate the influence of steam properties and regeneration strategy on total energy performance and breakthrough behaviour. It is shown that using saturated steam lowers both the steam mass and energy consumption during regeneration of a fixed amount of benzene, whereas using superheated steam returns the bed to a more fresh-like state after each regeneration stage. The most promising variation tried implies a 19% reduction in the energy consumption. Furthermore, the importance of accounting for the real industrial cycling conditions in the optimization of packed-bed adsorbers is highlighted. It is shown that the participation of different sections of the bed during adsorption varies with the regeneration strategy, but is never as localized as predicted from a model for a fresh bed without cycling. Finally, the present results also show that the effluent purity attained during regeneration increases when high-temperature saturated steam is used, e.g. a 60-degree increase in steam temperature raises the purity by 11%.