4. Results and discussion
4.1. The effect of gas flow rate on the removal of water vapor
during adsorption
Fig. 5 shows the variation of percentage removal of water vapor
for different natural gas flow rates during water adsorption.
It is clear from fig. 5, that at the start of water vapor
adsorption the percentage removal of water vapor is low then
increases gradually until it reached a constant value. This phenomena
was repeated for various flow rates. This can be attributed
to The fact that adsorption is governed by pore diffusion
mechanism (Physisorption), since the run was carried out at
low pressure (2 Kg/cm2) and hence low driving force which increased
the period to reach the maximum water adsorption
capacity.
It is also noted that as the inlet gas flow rate increases (from
50 to 120 L/h) the removal percentage of water vapor
decreases. This can be attributed to the increase in water load
as the gas flow rate increases and decrease of contact time between
gas and molecular sieves.