Adsorptive water removal from dichloromethane and vapor-phase regeneration of a molecular sieve 3A packed bed

The drying of dichloromethane with a molecular sieve 3A packed bed process is modeled and experimentally verified. In the process, the dichloromethane is dried in the liquid phase and the adsorbent is regenerated by water desorption with dried dichloromethane product in the vapor phase. Adsorption equilibrium experiments show that dichloromethane does not compete with water adsorption, because of size exclusion; the pure water vapor isotherm from literature provides an accurate representation of the experiments. The breakthrough curves are adequately described by a mathematical model that includes external mass transfer, pore diffusion, and surface diffusion. During the desorption step, the main heat transfer mechanism is the condensation of the superheated dichloromethane vapor. The regeneration time is shortened significantly by external bed heating. Cyclic steady-state experiments demonstrate the feasibility of this novel, zero-emission drying process.