Could everyone help me analyze whether heat regeneration or regeneration without heat is suitable for my situation?
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A gas dryer is required behind the air compressor, with the dew point needing to be kept below -60 degrees Celsius. I’m not very familiar with dryers, so I have a few concerns; I would appreciate some advice from everyone. If pressure swing adsorption is used, one column goes through a depressurization process, after which gas from another column is introduced to remove the water molecules present in that depressurized column, thereby achieving regeneration. But how is regeneration carried out for the new equipment the first time it is installed? Both columns contain a large amount of water in their packing materials. Heating regeneration involves using a blower to draw air in; through heating, the water molecules become more active and thus easier to remove. What is the typical temperature at which this heating takes place? What about power consumption? If cooling is still carried out using compressed air, the dew point temperature of the compressor during its first regeneration will be relatively high; heating has just removed the water molecules, but won’t cooling cause it to absorb a large amount of water molecules again? This is my confusion; I hope the more experienced members will kindly offer their guidance.
Heating regeneration can be used. The molecular sieve or alumina adsorbents that have just arrived at the site are dry; it is possible to choose whether to regenerate them or not. As for the dryer, the temperature depends on the type of desiccant used, with temperatures generally ranging from 130 to 150 degrees. After heating and drying, there is a cold blowing stage; the gas used for cold blowing in this stage comes from another adsorption tank and is dry.
I’m worried that when using it for the first time, neither bucket will undergo regeneration; once one is heated, a large amount of moisture will get absorbed during the cooling process
You don’t need to worry about this; generally, the manufacturers activate it before shipping it, and moreover, the activation temperature at the installation site isn’t high enough either； Furthermore, when testing the system, you can consider not supplying gas at first and waiting until regeneration is complete before starting to supply gas. Even if gas needs to be supplied right after installation, that’s not a big problem. If you’re concerned, you can use a higher volume of regenerated gas and a higher regeneration temperature in the initial stage.
It seems that this method gives a decent dew point; it would be quite difficult to reach temperatures of minus eighty or ninety degrees. Thank you for your answer – I’ve learned something! ! ! !
At negative 80 or 90 degrees, even using a single microheat regeneration dryer is likely not sufficient; either the microheat dryer needs to be extremely large. The dew point of such a dryer is generally around negative 60 degrees. Using two dryers in series might yield better results. However, in many cases, even with our existing liquid argon pump systems that use a sealing gas at negative 60 degrees, this approach still works fine.