A simple predictive tool for estimating the water removal rate in solid desiccant dehydrators

In the natural gas industry, there are several solid desiccants that possess the physical characteristic to adsorb water from natural gas. In processes where cryogenic temperatures are encountered, solid desiccant dehydration is usually preferred over conventional methanol injection to prevent hydrate and ice formation. Capacity and performance data for solid desiccants are usually presented based on a static test. However, under operating conditions (dynamic) the performance data may be significantly different. Therefore, in this work an attempt has been made to develop a simple-to-use mathematical predictive tool for estimating the water equilibrium adsorption behavior for various solid desiccants and in wide range of conditions in contact with natural gas. This mathematical predictive tool shows consistently accurate results across the proposed pressure and temperature ranges for a typical solid desiccant dehydrator wherein the average absolute deviation percent is 1.3%.