The Heat Exchanger

Ôbservations

We can determine the heat of reaction - exothermic

Maximum amount of water adsorbed

We plotted RH (exiting N2) vs Time - max RH was 43C after which saturated N2 was coming out. This is because of the two streams injected (one at 0% and the other at 100%

In this experiment, the zeolite is acting as a molecular sieve because the pores pores selectively allows N2 to pass through. But what happen after saturation?

The temperature at the lower part of the bed is always higher than the top (T4>T3 - approximately 5C). To maximize the life of the zeolite, mixing is required otherwise the particles at the bottom wll degrade faster.

The reacton at the bottom was more intensive than at the top because less wahter gets to the top of the column.

Steady state temperature was equal to room tempearture because no more heat of reaction was being generated after the zeolite has been saturated. Saturation occured at 23% wt of zeolite.

Application

It can be used as industrial drying agent - we know the time it reaches saturation and the maximum ttemperature possible (

Questions

Operating pressure

Heat capacity of the zeolite to determine heat of reaction Q= MCpdT

Confirm flowrate of the 2 streams - Dry N2 and wet N2

is the max temperature we observed the transition temperature after which the vzeolite catches fire? If not, how do we determine the transition temp to avoid fire accident?

Is this a physical adsorption? How do we explain the exothermic condition? Chemical reaction between the zeolite and water molecules?

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