Efficiency of Thermal Management Using Phase-Change Material for Nonisothermal Adsorption Process

Current energy issues have driven the development of high-throughput separation processes using solid adsorbents as an alternative to distillation. However, it is a crucial problem that the temperature increase due to adsorption heat significantly reduces the adsorption performance because of near adiabatic operations. Herein, we discuss thermal management using phase change materials (PCMs) in such processes based on a combination of experimental and theoretical studies. Breakthrough curve measurements for n-butane adsorption on a packed bed column containing activated carbon and PCM pellets confirm the validity of our nonisothermal adsorption column model that considers the latent heat of fusion of PCMs. Then, the effects of the melting temperature and weight fraction of PCMs on adsorption performance are thoroughly investigated for an adiabatic adsorption process. Finally, we propose a simple heat balance equation for the optimum weight fraction of PCMs that maximizes the adsorption capacity of the column.