Investigation of the adsorption of water vapor and carbon dioxide by KA zeolite

According to the present data, KA zeolite, which can adsorb only water vapor, helium, and hydrogen, has the greatest selectivity in drying. The feasibility of using this zeolite in devices for selective drying of gases used in gas-analysis systems was studied. The results of the experiments were approximated by the thermal equation of the theory of bulk filling of micropores. The limiting value of the adsorption depends on the temperature, and it can be calculated according to the density of the adsorbed phase and the adsorption volume. The critical diameters of the water and carbon dioxide molecules are close to the dimensions of the KA-zeolite pores, something that determines the activated nature of the adsorption of these substances. Experiments on coadsorption of water vapor and carbon dioxide by a fixed bed of KA-zeolite under dynamic conditions showed that the adsorption of these substances has a frontal nature. The time of the protective action of the layer of zeolite during adsorption af water vapor exceeded by more than an order the time of the protective action during adsorption of carbon dioxide. The results showed that this adsorbent can be used for selective drying of gas mixtures containing carbon dioxide in batch-operation devices. Beforehand, the adsorbent should be regenerated with respect to moisture, and then it should be saturated with carbon dioxide by blowing the adsorbent with a gas mixture of the working composition until the equilibrium state is reached