Solvent vapor recovery by pressure swing adsorption. III. Comparison of simulation with experiment for the butane-activated carbon system

A fully predictive (no adjustable parameters), nonisothermal, multicomponent mathematical model was developed and used to simulate a pressure swing adsorption (PSA) process designed for the separation and recovery of concentrated butane vapor from nitrogen using BAX activated carbon. Nearly quantitative agreement with experiment was realized with this model over a wide range of process conditions, and for both the transient and periodic state process dynamics and the periodic state process performance. The model also verified some unique characteristics of this PSA process, and it revealed some of the subtleties associated with accurately simulating a PSA-solvent vapor recovery (SVR) process. These subtleties included the need to account for the adsorbate heat capacity and the temperature dependence of the gas-phase physical properties. No PSA models in the literature have included both of these features, which were critical to the accurate prediction of the heat effects in this PSA-SVR process.