CO2 adsorption in a confined fluidized bed of zeolite pellets: Influence of operating velocity

CO2 adsorption is performed across a fluidized bed comprising a commercial pelletized 13X zeolite confined to the interstitial void network of a coarse glass sphere packed bed. Compared with traditional fixed bed adsorption, the packed fluidized system allows operation across a wide-range of gas velocities without a substantial increase in pressure drop. Additionally, with respect to conventional fluidization regimes, the technique adopted herein prevents the formation of bubbles in favour of enhancing the bed expansion ability. Furthermore, for a given mass of sorbent, the CO2 uptake capacity is observed to increase as a result of improved thermal conditions and in eliminating any by-pass effect at the gas–particle interface, which is associated to the suppression of bubbling.