Experimental investigation for enhancement of heat and mass transfer during regeneration of zeolite 13X-water pair

The effect of adding metal pieces in the adsorbent bed for enhancing the effective thermal conductivity and drying kinetics is investigated for the Zeolite 13X bed. Aluminum, stainless-steel pieces ranging in size from 1.5 cm to 2 cm, and aluminum oxide nanoparticles are chosen, and the total weight added to the bed is approximately 2 % of the adsorbent weight. The different semi-theoretical drying models like Lewis, Page, Logarithmic, Henderson, and Pabis and empirical models like Weibull and Gaussian model are used for the analysis. Adsorption and desorption of Zeolite 13X-water integrated with various metal pieces revealed a decrease in the adsorption capacity of adsorbents with metal pieces and increased bed moisture content for powdered aluminum oxide. It can be noticed that the desorption process was improved by including the metal pieces in the adsorbent bed.; Desorption rates range from 19.54 % for the bed mixed with straight aluminum pieces and 21.43 % for the bed filled with stainless steel. The desorption rates for the bed containing nanoparticles of aluminum oxide and spiral aluminum pieces are 20.48 % and 22.21 %, respectively. The experimental investigation on efficiency enhancement revealed that the desorption process of an adsorbent bed with straight aluminum pieces increased efficiency by 12.38 %, while the bed with aluminum oxide and stainless steel increased efficiency by 17.75 % and 23.20 %, respectively. The effectiveness of an adsorbent bed with spiral aluminum pieces is enhanced by 27.68 %. The drying kinetics analysis of zeolite 13x regeneration using semi-theoretical and empirical models which showed good agreement with experimental results.