Adsorption Characteristics of Hydrogen Mixtures in a Layered Bed: Binary, Ternary, and Five-Component Mixtures

Adsorption characteristics in a layered bed packed with activated carbon and zeolite 5A were studied experimentally and theoretically through the breakthrough experiments of binary (H2/CO, H2/CH4, H2/CO2), ternary (H2/CH4/CO), and five-component (H2/CH4/CO/N2/CO2) systems. The effects of adsorption pressure, feed flow rate, and carbon-to-zeolite ratio on the breakthrough curve in a layered bed were observed. Breakthrough curves in all of the mixtures showed tailing due to temperature variance in the bed by the heat of adsorption. In the layered bed, each mixture showed the specific characteristics of concentration and temperature wave fronts in each layer. Although the amount of impurity in a ternary mixture is larger than that in a binary mixture, the breakthrough time and elongation depending on the adsorption pressure and flow rate showed an intermediate value between the results of the H2/CO and H2/CH4 mixtures, and the tailing was not much different from those in these binary systems. Also, the roll-...