Mathematical modelingof heat and mass transfer processes in the adsorbers of the air purification system

Article History: Received: 11 January 2021; Accepted: 27 February 2021; Published online: 5 April 2021 Abstract:The present work is devoted to the study of the processes of heat and mass transfer in the adsorbers of the preliminary drying unit of the atmosphere purification system. A mathematical model has been developed that adequately reflects the physical processes at all stages of the adsorption cycle.Algorithms for solving problems and programs for calculating heat and mass transfer processes in an adsorption regenerated installation are obtained, results of parametric calculations of heat and mass transfer processes at each stage of the adsorption cycle and for the entire cycle as a whole are obtained.


Introduction
In atmospheric purification systems, carbon dioxide is removed from the air by using the adsorption phenomenon. As a physical phenomenon, adsorption is widely used for directed formation of layers of various substances on a substrate surface [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. A lot of coatings with modified properties can be attributed to the polymers, nanomaterials etc. [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]. Before the air is cleaned from carbon dioxide, it is dried in a preliminary drying unit also by passing through an adsorbent bed. The pre-drying unit consists of two alternately operating adsorbers covered with a granular absorber -silica gel. One of the adsorbers works to dry the air, and the second is regenerated at this time. The duration of each half-cycle is usually 1 hour, and it is determined by the appearance behind the adsorbent layer of the concentration of water vapor in the air at a level of -20 C according to the dew point temperature. Providing such a degree of air drying requires constant energy consumption (up to 240 W), which is used to heat the air to regenerate the adsorbent.
The solution of the set tasks requires a large amount of theoretical and experimental work. Due to the large number of parameters that determine the efficiency of the drying process, a complete analysis of the cycle is largely determined by the presence and implementation of reliable mathematical models and calculation algorithms in engineering practice [26][27][28][29][30][31][32]. On their basis, it is possible both to take into account the peculiarities of the flow of heat and mass transfer processes at each step of the cycle, and their interaction during the transition from the previous step to the next.

Systems of equations simulating the adsorption process
In accordance with the description of the physical processes of adsorption, it is necessary to write a system of equations describing the dynamics of sorption in the layer of the studied system [33][34][35][36][37][38]. Experimental studies have shown that the processes occurring in the sorbent layer are nonstationary and one-dimensional (we neglect the change in parameters along the layer height). In the general case, when the gas mixture is passed through the adsorption layer, the sought functions ( , ), ( , )and ( , )must satisfy the system of equations describing the balance of matter and energy in the layer, and also reflecting the kinetics and statics of adsorption.
The first equation reflecting the balance of matter in the layer can be written in the following form: (1) are considered effective, not true, i.e. averaged over the length of the average distance between the granules.
The convective transfer rate U , determined from the condition The continuity equation as a whole is obtained by summing equations (1) over i.
Instead of equation (2), the continuity equation for the i-th component can be used. Equation (2) corresponds to the law of conservation of matter and is not associated with any special hypotheses.
The equation reflecting the kinetics of the process is written in the following form: The following equation is the energy equation for the charge and filter gas, which can be written in the following form: The change in the internal energy per unit volume is determined by convective heat transfer and thermal conductivity, as well as the release or absorption of heat in the layer during sorption or desorption, is described by the term in the equation (4): To close the system of equations, it must be supplemented with equations for * , i.e. the previously considered sorption isotherms, as well as the equation of state: (6) The specific form of the function in the case of absorption of water vapor is determined from the experiment. Thus, the following system of equations is obtained: Unknown quantities of the system of equations: In total, the number of equations is 3N. The system is closed. This system of differential equations must also be supplemented with initial and boundary conditions. The initial conditions specify the distributions of the functions , and along the sorbent layer at the initial moment of time. The boundary conditions determine the required functions on the boundaries of the system.    Thus, the transfer of heat within the layer by means of thermal conduction occurs 5 orders of magnitude slower than with convective heat transfer. Therefore, the thermal conductivity in the energy equation can be neglected.

Determination of essential physical factors and boundary conditions
After discarding the terms describing insignificant physical factors, we finally obtain the system of equations. 2) Boundary and initial conditions. Border conditions. When ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) The equations obtained make it possible to simulate adsorption processes and carry out numerical experiments.

Conclusions
Onthebasisof the obtained expressions, it is possible both to take into account the peculiarities of the flow of heat and mass transfer processes at each of the steps of the adsorption-desorption cycle, and their interaction during the transition from the previous step to the next. Numerical experiments on predicting the behavior of an adsorption system with different organization of cycle steps make it possible not only to reasonably determine the technological parameters of the process, but in many cases also to reduce the amount of experimental research.

Acknowledgement
This work was carried out with the financial support of RFBR, project No. 20-08-00707.