Design and performance analysis of compressed air adsorption dryer with heatless regeneration mode

In many industrial processes compressed air free from traces of water vapour is essential. Adsorption dryer with heatless regeneration is used to treat air after compression to ultra-low dew point. A simple step by step design procedure for this dryer is presented. In this study, the adsorption dryer is developed based on layout design procedure, and optimal parametric conditions are obtained based on experimental design. Then the effect of process parameters on adsorption performance is studied for optimal conditions. The purge air required to achieve a varied range of pressure dew point of dry air at required operating pressure is suggested. The results revealed that a heatless regenerated adsorption system is suitable for the applications which involve feed air inlet temperature ranging from 25 to 45 °C, feed air operating pressure ranging from 5 bar, and pressure dew point of product dry air ranging from -40 to -70 °C.