Recovery of vinyl chloride from by‐streams of polyvinyl chloride production by TPSA in a multitubular adsorber

AbstractThis work aims at developing an efficient and feasible adsorption‐based separation process for the separation of vinyl chloride and nitrogen, on activated carbon, by employing a multitubular packed bed geometry, with adsorbent material inside the tubes. Using this geometry, a 2‐dimensional mathematical model of a temperature pressure swing adsorption process was used to developed a 6‐step three multitubular adsorbers system capable of separating and purifying an industrial scale gas stream of a 40:60% (v/v) vinyl chloride/nitrogen mixture into a 95% (v/v) vinyl chloride stream and a nitrogen stream with a vinyl chloride limit concentration of 8 ppm (w/w). The process reported energy consumption of 4.88 × 106 J/kgVCM and recovery capacity of 24.35 kgVCM/(m3unit h). The multitubular geometry enabled the use of lower adsorbent loads, shorter cycle times, and lower regeneration temperatures. An equivalent 1‐dimensional model has also shown to satisfactorily estimate the performance of the current equipment.