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adsorption drying
Overview
Generally there are three kinds of compressed air dryers, refrigerated compressed air dryers,adsorption compressed air dryers
and combined compressed air dryers.Limited by the working principal and structure,dew point of refrigerated dryer can not be
lower than 0 ℃，and ordinary scope is 2-10℃.But in some situation,compressed air is required to be of high quality,if the
pressure dew point is required to be -40℃,then we can only select adsorption dryer or combined low dew point dryer.
Application of adsorption dryers were much earlier than refrigerated dryer,from the 5/6's of last century,some industry in our
country began to use adsorption dryer to dry compressed air.

Application of adsorption separation technology is quite widely, such as refinement of industry production,treatment of industry
sewage and process of atmospheric pollution and etc.
Adsorption drying is one of the application of adsorption separation technology.
Adsorption working principal

Adsorption process
When fluid(including gas and liquid) gets in touch with solid particles ,especially porous particles,some fluid ingredients will
gather in solid particles,which is called"Adsorption process".Therefore,adsorption is the process of mass transfer and gathering
occurred at two-phase interface in heterogeneous system(e.g.gas-solid system)
nverse process of adsorption is called desorption,and we usually call it regeneration.
Porous solid matter with function of selective adsorption are called desiccant,ingredients gathered on desiccant are called
adsorbates.In compressed air,the adsorbate is water vapour.
According to different surface action,adsorption process can be devided into two types,physical adsorption and
chemisorption.The former can also be called Van der Waals adsorption,which is caused by intermolecular forces and
electrostatic interaction;the latter is caused by chemical bond.Chemisorption force is stronger than physical adsorption,and also
higher selectivity.
Adsorption drying in compressed air is mostly based on physical adsorption.When compressed air to be dried get in touch with
desiccants,water molecules will diffuse onto desiccants and be adsorbed by Van der Waals force.Meanwhile,some of the water
molecules adsorbates will leave from desiccants surface and go back to vapour phase by internal thermal motion and external
molecular collision,namely desorption.In unit time,when adsorption capacity is equal to desorption capacity,there is a dynamic
adsorption equilibrium,with both adsorption and desorption in progress but at same speed.In this situation,water vapour
absorbed by unit mass desiccants is called desiccants' static adsorption capacity,which is usually stated as
g(water)/kg(desiccant) or %.
In practical production,adsorption process is actually ended before the adsorption equilibrium,as our purpose is not to prove
how much is the static adsorption capacity,but to separate the two constituents in Fluid,such as separating water vapour from
compressed air,hence dynamic adsorption capacity is the very key parameter to adsorption dryers,though static capacity and
dynamic capacity are closely related.
Dynamic adsorption capacity is referring to the water vapour capacity adsorbed in adsorption tower after the wet air going through
desiccant bed and only when outlet dew point meets the setting value,whose unit is same with static adsorption
capacity.Obviously,the static adsorption capacity is more than dynamic adsorption capacity.The static adsorption capacity shows
the performance of desiccant,and dynamic adsorption capacity is selected by designer according to static adsorption
capacity,empirical data and design method,it is the basic parameter of adsorption dryer and used to calculate the filling amount
of adsorption dryer .
While desiccant is adsorbing the adsorbates,heat is generated by this process and called adsorption heat,namely adsorption
belongs to exothermic process,on the contrary,desorption belongs to endothermic process.Adsorption heat varies according to
different desiccants to different adsorbates,sheet 2-1 shows the reference value of adsorption heat respectively for three
desiccants to adsorb water vapour.
Water vapour adsorbates
Desiccants Adsorption heat
Silica gel 53.6
Activated aluminium oxide 51.9
molecular sieve 75.3
Sheet 2-1

& nbsp; Figure2-21 Desiccant performance curve

According to figure2-21,at a certain temperature,the higher the water vapour pressure is,the more the adsorption capacity of
water(adsorbates) is;at a certain water vapour pressure,the higher the temperature is,the less the adsorption capacity is.Namely
at low temperature and high pressure condition,water vapour is easy to be adsorbed;at high temperature and low pressure
condition,water vapour is easier to be desorbed.Adsorption dryers use this property to achieve the switch like"Adsorption-
regeneration- adsorption",so as to dry the compressed air continuously.
As described above,there are two types for process ofdesiccant
regeneration.
(heatless regeneration)
(heated regeneration)
(Temperature Swing Adsorption简称TSA for short)
According to the desiccant regeneration types,adsorption cycle is devided into two kinds:Pressure Swing Adsorption(PSA) and
Temperature Swing Adsorption(TSA).PSA refers to adsorb at high water vapour pressure (wet compressed air to be dried) and
regenerate at lower water vapour pressure (dry compressed air decompressed) --heatless regenerated type.Adsorption cycle
period is set short(within 10 min),adsorption heat has no time to diffuse for status being switched to regeneration,so
temperature swing is not obvious which can be taken as isothermal process.
TSA refers to adsorb at normal temperature and regenerate at higher temperature (heated regeneration).External heated blower
regenerated dryer is typical heated regenerated dryer.For tepid regenerated dryer,there is pressure swing (Purge air)companied
during the TSA.As purge air pressure is lower than compressed air inside desiccants,this process is also called
temperature&pressure swing adsorption.
Desiccant is of high specific heat capacity and low thermal conductivity,both heating and cooling need high energy and long
period,therefore TSA dryer is not only complex than PSA dryer in structure--with additional heating device,but also with longer
working period,for example,6~8 hours work period for external heated blower regenerated dryer.Regarding to the structure and
operating features of PSA and TSA dryer,please find more description in the following sections.
Molecular sieve
Molecular sieve is a kind of aluminosilicate,which has many advantages resulted of the even bore diameter and very high
specific surface area.
a)Selective adsorption according to bulk of molecule and molecular shape ,namely only to adsorb molecular whose bore
diameter is smaller than molecular sieve.Molecular sieve is of single surface bore diameter,only smaller molecular can enter
into the bore and stay at the surface of desiccant,molecular whose diameter is bigger can not enter.By this way to separate the
mixture,therefore is the name of it called molecular sieve.
b)Molecular sieve has the function of adsorbing polar molecule or unsaturated molecule selectively,the more polarity,the higher
unsaturation degree ,accordingly better selective adsorption ability.
c)Good water absorb ability. Even though under the situation of very high temperature,fast air velocity and little water content,it can
still keep very high water absorb capacity.
Common molecular sieve belongs to water crystallized aluminosilicate compound,chemical formula is as below:
Mex/n［（AlO2）x（SiO2）y］—mH2O
In this formula,
Me ——positive ion,usually to bemetal ion like Na,K and Ca and etc.
x/n ——n is the valence number ,which is the ion number to change metal positive iron.
m ——number of crystallized water
Molecular sieve is of the disadvantage of limited physical strength and not powerful water resistance,after long term usage, bulk
specific weight can be increased by 20%,and purge loss of using molecular sieve is more than using aluminum oxide,which
appears as much dust at the dryer downstream piping in the actual application when use molecular sieve as desiccant,thus at
the dryer outlet,we have to install dust filters.
There are many kinds of molecular sieve,frequently-used 3A ,4A,5 A ,13X and etc.A is the diameter of micro bore.4A and 5A are
commonly used in compressed air dryer,and 3X is often used for air separation plant.
For all the three kinds of desiccants,silica gel is seldom used,activated aluminium oxide is used most and molecular sieve is
often used at the situation of higher requirements.
Major performance has been listed in sheet 2-2 as below for all of the three kinds of desiccant.Sheet 2-3 has listed the service
conditions of three desiccants,in which service conditions refer to some impurities included in the compressed air.
Kinds of service conditions
Service condition silica gel activated aluminium oxide molecular sieve
Alkali NA Good Good
Acid Good NA NA

Adsorption performance curves of activated aluminium oxide and molecular sieve are showed in figures
2-22,2-23 and 2-24

2- 22
Figure 2-22 shows the adsorption capacity under different relative humidity,all three desiccants
have same property:the higher the relative humidity is,the more adsorption capacity is;accordingly
the adsorption ability of all three kinds of desiccants decrease as relative humidity of compressed
air reduces.However,we find that even in the situation of very low humidity,molecular sieve still
have good adsorption ability,therefore we often take this advantage of molecular sieve in desiccant
double bunk.

Adsorption capacity various in different water partial pressure(isothermal)

Figure 2-23 shows that desiccant adsorption ability deceases as the water partial pressure
reduces,and molecular sieve can still have adsorption ability even in the situation of very low
water partial pressure.
2- 24Adsorption capacity various in different adsorbing temperature(isobar)

Figure2-24 shows the change of adsorption capacity under different temperature:the lower the
adsorbing temperature is,the better the adsorption capacity is.
The structure and features of adsorption dryers

Heatless regenerated
Regeneration of heatless regenerated dryer doesn't use external heat,but adopts the principal of
PSA（Pressure Swing Adsorption）.This kind of dryers need 2-16% purge air of total air
capacity.Regenerated air needs to be reduced to atmosphere pressure for lower relative humidity.
Heatless regenerated dryers usually select alumina or molecular sieve as desiccant. Alumina is
suitable to be used at no more than 40℃ inlet temperature and ≥- 40℃ dew point
application.Molecular sieve is allowed to be used at maximum 55℃ inlet temperature and
＜-70℃pressure dew point.
For heatless regenerated dryers,temperature rise caused by adsorption is not obvious as not so much
water vapour is adsorbed.In normal operating condition,outlet temperature of compressed air is 2-6℃
higher than inlet temperature.

(一) Structure layout and working process

Structure of heatless regenerated dryer is relatively simple(see figure2- 28)
At the bottom of adsorption towers,there are equipped with screens(2),and at the outlet there is a
columned wire mesh(3) to avoid compressed air escaping from towers.One tower's inlet and outlet are
connected to another tower by pipes,in order to switch the two towers independently,at the
connections relative valves are installed.
There are four valves at the compressed air inlets at the bottom of dryers,they are respectively
called switch valves and discharge valves.Discharge valves (6)control the towers pressure discharge
,regenerated air discharge and towers pressure equalizing after finishing regeneration.Two switch
valves (1)control the flow direction of compressed air,that is to decide the switch between
adsorption and regeneration.During dryer running,all the four valves work by cross corner.For small
sized adsorption dryers,solenoid valves are adopted to be switch valves,while for large
size,pneumatic ball valves and pneumatic butterfly valves are adopted.

2-28

At the outlet of dryer top,compressed air enters into pipe by check valves after being dried,and
part of dry air for regenerated use will enter into the regenerated tower by by- pass pipe,there is
a orifice plate or ball valve(5) on the by-pass pipe,diameter of orifice plate or opening size of
ball valve is depended on the purge air(regenerated use air) capacity.
Working process of heatless regenerated dryers
After start of the dryer.Tower A runs adsorption while tower B runs regeneration.Under the preset
timing control,1-A open,1-B close,6-B open and 6-A close.Wet air will firstly enter into tower
A,after being dried,dry compressed air will enter into downstream pipe by 4-A,while part of dry air
will enter into Tower B by orifice plate(5) due to to the differential pressure,air pressure will be
decreased to near atmospheric pressure,and air volume will increase in the same proportion due to
the pressure drop,which can make the purge air humidity is only a fraction of dry air,now the water
partial pressure of this especial dryer air is much lower than the air inside desiccant bed of tower
B.Water vapour inside desiccant bed will be released to purge air to be taken away due to the
differential pressure,and finally the purge air will be discharged to atmosphere through 6-B and
silencer 7.
After finishing the regeneration,switch can not be implemented immediately between tower A and B,we
should firstly close discharge valve6-B,waiting pressure of B tower to increase to system
pressure,namely process of pressure equalizing.This is because during the regeneration,tower A is
under the atmosphere pressure,big differential pressure from adsorption status,if switch
directly,there will be pressure shock,and mechanical problem might be caused in extreme cases.
When the two towers' pressure is same,control system will send a signal for switching----Tower A
regeneration and Tower B adsorption
Heatless regenerated dryers need only a few valves,and switch valves are controlled by time directly
or indirectly.If use a few time relays to control switch valves for cheaper cost,there might be big
time error which is really unreliable despite cost saving.Our company adopts higher cost PLC
controller.

(二)Operational features
There are mainly two operational features for heatless regenerative dryer:Short working period and
large purge air loss.
a)Working period
For heatless regenerated dryer,as the normal temperature purge air can only adsorb the moisture from
desiccant's external surface,we only use the surface adsorption function,therefore the adsorption
capacity is less than 0.5%.
For heatless regenerated dryer,adsorption is approximatively to be thought as isothermal
process,regenerating process shall make full use of the adsorption heat kept inside the desiccant
bed.The longer the adsorption time is,the more adsorption heat will be taken away by the dry
air,which is related to the regeneration effect,in extreme case,even can not go on regenerating.
Based on the two aspects mentioned above,the working period of heatless regenerated dryer can not be
too long,usually to be 10min.Our company set the working period of heatless regenerated dryers to be
10min,and working period of UK domnick hunter PNEUDRI heatless dryer is 4min.
hort working period of heatless dryers determines the high frequency action of relative valves,for
example,if the period is 10min,then the switch between adsorption/regeneration need to be
implemented every 5min,switch valves and discharge valves also need action every 5min
accordingly,namely 12times every hour.If we calculate one year to be 8000 hours,then relative valves
of heatless dryers need action 96000 times every a year.Therefore,for the heatless regenerated
dryers,switch valves belong to consumable parts,whose quality has direct influence on the dryer
operation.
b)Purge air
Heatless regenerated dryer work by the principal of PSA ,and pressure swing regeneration type,namely
using partial dry air to depressurize for desorption,without any external energy,therefore,more
purge air loss needed.
Without regard to the heat loss during the process of adsorption,and assume that the regenerated air
discharged to the atmosphere belongs to saturated air at atmosphere pressure,and no temperature
difference between wet air and purge air,then regenerated
flow rate can be calculated according to 2-1:

2-1 In this formula

Vrf — regenerated flow rate m 3 /min
V — Dryer inlet air flow rate m 3 /min
di — Water content at air inlet
do- Water content at air inlet
In the formula 2-1,we have assumed the purge air temperature is same with wet air at inlet.As mentioned in Chapter 1,in the
situation of same temperature,water partial pressure is same for two kinds of saturated air with different pressure.Water content
varies inversely with the pressure.Therefore,for heatless regenerated dryer regenerated flow can be stated as specific value of
inlet pressure and regenerated pressure,and expression with percentage of inlet air flow rate(formula 2-2).

2-2
In this formula
Vrf — Regenerated air flow rate %
Pi — inlet wet air pressure(Absolute Pressure)
Pr — Refrigerated air pressure(Absolute Pressure)
There is a need to point out that the calculation results of formula 4-1 and 4-2 are based on an idealized case assumed,which is
the least purge air loss.In fact,the actual purge air loss of heatless regenerated dryer is more than the calculation from formula 2-
1 and 2-2.This is because:
In order to overcome the resistance from desiccant bed and discharge the regenerated air successfully,the actual pressure of
regenerated air Pr is slightly higher than the atmosphere pressure,which will increase the purge air loss.
Emptying loss.Heatless regenerated dryer switches frequently,for every switch,operating compressed air in the tower need to be
emptied,and this part of loss hasn't been stated in formula 2-1 and 2-2.
Heat loss.Heatless regenerated dryer is based on the TSA principal,Suppose that all heat the desorption process needed
comes from the adsorption heat collected inside the desiccant bed.Desiccant belongs to poor heat conductor ,thus we can
regard there's no heat loss in the short cycle period,however,dry air will surely take away part of heat,the heat loss can only be
replenished by increasing purge air.
For heatless regenerated dryer,in order to reduce the purge air loss,we can only increase the inlet pressure and decrease the
inlet temperature.

c)Pressure loss
Pressure loss of heatless regenerated dryer is the sum of pressure loss at pipeline,valves and adsorption bed.Figure2-30
shows the pressure loss at different velocity (for empty tower) and operating pressure,the unit is mm water column(10m water
column equal to 0.1Mpa).Our heatless regenerated dryer pressure loss is less than 0.02Mpa(At rated condition)

2-29Pressure loss at different velocity(for empty tower) and operating pressure

Heated regeneration
Heated regeneration dryer is based on the principal of TSA,which has better regeneration condition than heatless regenerated
dryer.Heating can realize deep adsorption of the desiccant.therefore dynamic adsorption capacity of heated dryer is much more
than heatless dryer.
Compared with heatless regenerated dryer,there are more types of heated dryers,but all types are under the same adsorption
principal,just different from heating methods and purge air source and so on.
Based on the heater position,heated regenerated dryers are devided into two types:internal heated regenerated dryer and
external heated regenerated dryer.And according to the purge air source,external heated dryer can be devided into another two
kinds:Tepid regenerated dryer by dry air and blower regenerated dryer by ambient air.For industrial enterprise,there are many
heating sources can be used ,such as electric,steam and hot oil.In recent years,heat of compression from compressor is used
as regenerated source in the country,and in foreign countries,vacuum regenerated dryer is developed well based on the external
blower regenerated dryer.
Heaters are installed inside the towers for internal heated regenerated dryer,hence the desiccant is heated directly by
heater,which can make the gathered water vapour the separate from the desiccant surface,meanwhile using little dry air to take
them away.Desiccant is of poor thermal conductivity，so desiccant inside the adsorption towers can not be heated even,which
cause incomplete regeneration,further more,as the heaters are installed inside the adsorption towers,it's uneasy to maintain
and unsafe,this kind of dryer has basically been eliminated

Tepid regenerated
Just as the name implies,regenerated temperature of tepid regenerated dryer is slightly lower than external regenerated
dryer.But different manufacturers have different understanding about tepid regeneration.There are big difference between kinds
of parameters,such as regenerated temperature,working period,desiccant filling amount and so on.(but most the same for
heatless regenerated dryer)
Structure layout and working process
Structure of tepid dryer is slightly more complicated than heatless dryer(as figure 2-31),mainly has increased a heater(8) and two
check valves(9).

2-31Woking process of tepid regenerated dryer

After start of the dryer.Tower A runs adsorption while tower B runs regeneration.Under the preset timing control,1-A open,1-B
close,6-B open and 6-A close.Wet air will firstly enter into tower A,after being dried,dry compressed air will enter into downstream
pipe by 4-A,while part of dry air will enter into heater(8) by orifice plate(5) due to to the differential pressure,and this part of dry air
will be heated to setting value and then enter into tower B to make desorption ,and the wet regenerated air will finally be
discharged to atmosphere through 6-B and silencer 7.This process is called"heating stage"
After a period of heating regeneration,the regenerated air temperature will come to the setting value,in this case,heater will stop
heating.Unheated regenerated dry air will enter into Tower B and cool down the desiccant bed until adsorption temperature.This
process is called"Cooling stage"
After the cooling stage,Tower B need pressure equalizing to finish the whole regeneration process.

(二 )Operational features
Longer working period,smaller purge air loss(7% at rated working condition),and need extra energy source.
a)Working period
Desiccant in tepid dryer belongs to deep adsorption,dynamic adsorption capacity is more than heatless dryer, namely for same
amount of desiccant,this kind of dryer can treat more compressed air,hence the adsorption time can be properly delayed,Due to
the poor heat conductivity，it will spend a lot of time to heat the desiccant bed to setting value.From the regenerated process of
tepid desiccant dryer,we can know that after the end of heating,there is still a process of cooling,which still need a long
time.Caused by the two reasons mentioned above,the working period of tepid dryer is longer.Our company has summarized the
working period from different regenerated temperature,and also determined the working period of RSXJ series to be 90-120min
b)Purge air
Purge air loss of tepid dryer is consist of heating regenerated air loss and cooling air loss,heating air loss depends on the heat
needed by regeneration as this part of air is mainly regeneration heat taken into adsorption tower.Heating regeneration stage
includes the following parts:
Heat absorbed by desiccant
Adsorption heat.Depending on the water capacity absorbed by desiccant under operating pressure.The more water capacity
absorbed,the more adsorption heat released.
Heat consumed by dryer parts such as adsorption tower.
Heat loss
During the heating stage,purge air loss is about 5%of inlet air capacity.
Cooling air loss depends on the heat taken by cooling stage.In normal condition,cooling air loss is about 4-8%.
c)Power of heater
Power of heater depends on the total heat needed by the heating stage,power of electric heater is usually 0.5kw(1㎡/min)
d)Pressure loss
Please refer to the relative part of heatless regenerated dryer chapter.
External blower regenerated
External blower regenerated dryer is well known as the classic product among heated regenerated dryers,one of its main
features is to use ambient air as regenerated air in heating stage,and only use dry compressed air during the cooling
stage,therefore its effective air supply is more than tepid dryer.
Outline of external blower regenerated dryer is showed in figure 2-32.For the regeneration,there is one more blower used to draw
ambient air.Adsorption principal and process are almost the same with tepid dryer.

2-32

Regeneration process of external blower regenerated dryer includes the following three parts:
Heating--cooling---pressure equalizing
Regenerated air of heating stage and part of cooling stage is from atmosphere.
At the end of cooling stage,temperature of desiccant bed is very low,the desiccant already has the ability to absorb,in this
situation,if the regenerated air is still from wet ambient air,the desiccant(especially desiccant at top of adsorption tower) will
absorb the water vapour contained in wet air,in this case,at the beginning of switching to adsorption,outlet dew point will be very
high and up to peak value.In order to avoid this problem,at the end of cooling stage(about 1 hour),regenerated air must be from
dry compressed air,capacity is about 5%~12%,and average purge air loss of whole regeneration stage is above 3%.
Technical parameters of external blower regenerated dryer is as below
——Working period：usually to be 8 hours
——Filling amount of desiccant：25-30kg/(1m 3 /min)
——Power of heater:0.8-1.0kw/(1m 3 /min)
——Purge air loss: 3% and above
——Regenerating temperature：120-180℃ for silica gel,150-200℃ for alumina,80-320℃ for molecular sieve.
——Outlet dew point：-40℃

Heat of compression regenerated

For compressed air dryers,adsorption compressed air dryer can make low dew point,but the energy consumption is too much.
As strategy of sustainable development is widely promoted by all,energy saving for adsorption dryer is the consistent goal in this
industry.RSC series combined dryers of our company are this kind of energy saving and low dew point dryer.And at the same
time,another kind of energy saving dryer is developed in this industry----regenerated heat is heat of compression from
compressor,which is called heat of compression regenerated dryer.
Design philosophy of this kind of dryer is as below:
During the compression,air volume will reduce while temperature rise,as enthalpy of air is the single-valued function of
temperature,when the discharge temperature and suction temperature of compressor are the same,the enthalpy is
invariable,which means all the compressor work is taken away by cooling water or ambient air in the type of heat.This part of heat
is very sizable,can fully meet the regeneration heat requirement of same capacity adsorption dryer.
Currently there are two types for this kind of dryer
(1)Regenerated directly by the high temperature compressed air which is from the compressor and hasn't gone through the
after-cooler.
Regenerated method of this type is similar with external blower regenerated dryer----both use wet air to be regenerated air.But
regard with the regeneration performance,the former is worse than the latter.
According to the principal of heated regenerated,whether the regeneration of desiccant is complete or not depends on the
temperature and moisture content of regenerated air.Regenerated air temperature of heat of compression dryer is depended on
the compressor discharge temperature,usually discharge temperature of piston compressor should be less than 160℃ on
requirements,the actual discharge temperature can hardly excess 160℃ in site,some even 10℃ lower than this value.And for
screw compressor,the discharge temperature is much lower.This low temperature air is not good for the desiccant
regeneration,it will cause incomplete regeneration,which will accordingly cause high dew point of final outlet air.External blower
dryer is without this problem.
Moisture content of compressor second cylinders is related with the relative humidity of ambient air,water vapour content in unit
volume under pressure is more than that under constant pressure,which cause the regeneration of this kind of dryer is
incomplete,unless the relative humidity of ambient air is very low.
In a word,in the situation of not high regenerated temperature,outlet dew point of this kind of dryer is easily effected by
environment,according to different seasons and different areas,outlet dew point of this dryer varies from -10 ~40℃,which is not
suitable for applications required stable dew point.
(2)Intermediate heater
Exchange the hot compressed air from compressor without after cooler and dry air to improve the regenerated air
temperature.This structure is similar with tepid dryer,only that the heat source is not from electric and steam but hot air.As the
compressor discharge temperature is not high,basically this kind of dryer belongs to tepid regenerated type.

Control system of dryers

There are two kinds of control system for adsorption compressed air dryers.
PLC control mentioned above is our standard configuration for adsorption dryers,according to the timing sequence defined in
advance,output signal of PLC will control the shift of switch valves and discharge valves,and will not change the timing sequence
by the air flow change.
Another kind is our DPOS(Dew point energy saving system) control.
In order to guarantee the outlet dew point temperature,we decide the dryer capacity according to the maximum load of
compressed air.However,at the actual sites,working condition is not always at extreme situation(maximum load),most of time
better than extreme condition.For example,the extreme temperature always comes in summer,and lower temperature in
Spring,Autumn and Winter.

Under the control of timing sequence,working period of adsorption dryer is constant,for example,working period of RSXW series
adsorption/regeneration is 10 min.see figure 2-33
In the situation of small load,adsorption area is small,and speed of movement is low.If we switch status according to fixed
working period,before the adsorption area rising to the top,it will be changed to regeneration status(Adsorption capacity is more
than needed),meanwhile using dry air to regenerate the desiccant which is not really wet,hence there is a big waste of energy.
DPOS is used to save energy at maximum by making adsorption dryer to be under full load as far as possible.
DPOS system consists of dew point sensor and PLC,dew point sensor is installed at the dryer outlet,we set the dew point
temperature on the energy saving system,and the system will compare it with the outlet dew point on-line,if the actual value is
below the setting value,not any signal will appear for adsorption/regeneration,the adsorption process will go on,and regeneration
has been ended within the set time,namely waiting after the pressure charging(see figure2-33),for the time being there is not any
purge air loss.When the outlet dew point is equal to setting value,the system will give a signal for adsorption/regeneration
switching and enter into next cycle.

2-23Timing sequence of RSXW series heatless regenerated dryer dew point energy saving
Comparison of various dryers
From the principal of adsorption/regeneration,comprehensive energy consumption of heatless,tepid and external heated types
are almost the same,that is a balance needed between adsorption and regeneration.However,effective air supply of the three
dryers are different(Different purge air loss),which can affect the selection of compressor.For the whole compressed air
system.,when meeting the requirements of dew point,selection of different dryers has some influence on the total dryer
invest,occupied area and freight cost.Economical and technical comparison please find in figure 2-34
Economical and technical comparison for adsorption dryers
Dryer type Heatless Tepid Heated
Working principal （PSA） PSA&TSA （TSA）

Outlet pressure dew point -20 ~40℃ -20 ~-40℃ -20 ~40℃
Dimensions of
1 1~1.5 1.5~2
adsorption towers
Regenerated temperature Higher than inlet temperature 120~200 120~320
Working period 4~10(min ) 1.5~8h 6~8h
Power of heater ~0.5KW/(1m 3 /min) ~0.9KW/(1m 3 /min)
Purge air loss 12~16% 6~8% 3~5%
Very simple structure,
Complicated structure,
very easy operation, Very complicated structure,
easy operation,small
low one-off invest, larger occupied area,
occupied area,
very small occupied area, smaller purge air loss ，
Comprehensive evaluation large purge air loss ，
arge purge air loss ， smaller compressor
smaller compressor
large compressor outlet air needed,
outlet air needed，
outlet air needed, very long switching time
longer switching time
frequent switch
Application of adsorption dryer
Service condition
Adsorption compressed air dryer in this company(RSXW series and RSXJ series included) is rated in the following working
condition
Inlet air pressure: 0.7MPa(g)
Inlet air temperature:40℃(saturated moist air)
Ambient temperature:38℃
Pressure dew point:-40℃Purge air loss: 14%（Heatless ） 7%（Tepid）
When adsorption dryer is working under rated working condition,it can be used at maximum efficiency.Users can select the
matched dryer according to the capacity and relative requirements,therefore users can get the air quality they need.However,if the
working condition is much different from rated condition and no action taken,it will surely affect the normal running and reduce
work efficiency,in the extreme situation even can not attain quality air and affect the service life.

We will analysis a few important factors which are easily neglected but can seriously affect normal running of adsorption dryer.

(一)Inlet air temperature

Compressed air entering into adsorption dryer belongs to saturated air with certain temperature,from figure3.2,we can know
that:under the same pressure,every 5 ℃ increased by temperature,there will be a 30%saturation moisture content
increased,namely humidity load will increase 30%.

(二)Working pressure
Working pressure has significant influence on dryer running for following four aspects:
1)As mentioned above,the lower the compressed air pressure is,the more purge air loss is.And we can understand from figure
2-4,saturation moisture content of compressed air varies inversely with pressure,namely the lower the working pressure is,the
more moisture load is,therefore more purge air is needed.
2)From the dryer structure we can know that purge air loss is depended on the pressure difference between both sides and the
opening of orifice plate or ball valve,Under certain flow area,purge air capacity going through orifice plate or ball valves and
pressure are in direct proportion,working pressure drop will reduce purge air,which will reduce the regeneration effectiveness
accordingly and also adsorption effectiveness.
3)Volume and pressure of compressed air are in inverse proportion,lower air pressure can improve flow velocity of empty
tower.Contact time between desiccant and compressed air is shorter,which cause the reduction of dynamic adsorption capacity.
4)From figure 2-29,we can know that the flow velocity of empty tower is increased due to the pressure loss,which cause the
larger pressure loss of desiccant bed.
Therefore working pressure drop will certainly cause the rise of outlet dew point,more purge air loss and more pressure
loss,especially for heatless regenerated dryer.Following working pressure is required for heatless dryers:≥0.5Mpa(Special
designed excluded)
Not only pressure drop has influence on dryer running,but also significant pressure fluctuation can affect,especially when
matched with piston type air compressor,as well as some situation when large air supply change.In this situation,we should set
a proper buffer tank before the dryer or set a pressure maintenance valve in the system to ensure the stable running.
(三)Condensate water
Compressed air generated from compressor after-cooler is a kind of supersaturation air,which contains some condensate
water,a little condensate water has little influence on dryer as our company has filled porcelain ball or alumina(non-actived) at
the bottom of adsorption towers,however,if there is not any water separater and filter before the dryer,large amount of
condensate(or caused by other reasons) will enter into the adsorption towers and cause worse adsorption and rising dew point
continuously,in some extreme situation,desiccant may be cracked to powder and needed desiccant change(Concretely appear
 as:spray powder from silencer and blocked in the after- dust filter),reasons as below:
After amount of condensate water entering into adsorption tower,desiccant will adsorb lots of water instantly,meanwhile release
lots of adsorption heat,as desiccant is not a good heat carrier,adsorption heat can not diffuse out in time and be adsorbed by
liquid water inside the desiccant,when gathering enough heat,water inside the desiccant will steam to gas,whose volume will
increase suddenly,therefore configuration of water separater is really necessary.
(四) Oil

Oil-free lubricated piston type air compressor(labyrinth seal,filling with positive pressure protection and small power equipment
excluded),whose discharge air includes some lubricated oil,6~15mg/m3 according to different structure and specification.Almost
the same oil content in inject-fuel screw compressors,oil content is almost 5~15 mg/m 3 according to the oil separator
effectiveness and discharge temperature.We take median as 10mg/m 3,and take capacity of 10m 3 /min compressor for
example,oil content can be calculated by the following formula after 8000hrs(1 year) running.
So much lubricated oil enter into adsorption dryer can absolutely accelerate desiccant aging,and cause short service life.
Solution to this problem is to equip oil filter in front of adsorption dryer.

(五 )Purge air
We have already mentioned a lot in the previous chapter,here another point need to be highlighted,purge air can not be adjusted
freely during dryer normal running.Furthermore,for heated adsorption dryers,instant flow rate can not be too slow,otherwise the
heat transfer effectiveness of heat carrier(purge air) will be reduced,which will cause partial superheated and most part no
heat,this has bad influence on structure and performance of desiccant,meanwhile too slow flow rate will reduce the flow
velocity,this will cause tunnel effect due to air shorted in desiccant bed,and cause uneven heat transfer and desorption
accordingly.
Model selection
During the selection of compressed air dryers,firstly we need to consider the required dew point,and decide to select refrigerated
dryer,adsorption dryer or combined dryer according to the required dew point.
When we decide to select adsorption dryer,we can choose the adsorption dryer types according to comparison of 2.4.4.4 2.4.5.1
Installation
Installation of adsorption dryer please see details in user manual,however two more points need to be specified:
(1)All the adsorption dryers have to be used together with proper filters,before dryers,there should be oil&dust pre-filters to
remove the condensate water,oil content and solid particles in the compressed air,and filters downstream can remove the dust
produced by dryers.
(2)There should be a buffer tank configured between air compressor and adsorption dryer.

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