WORKING PHILOSOPHY OF HEATLESS AIR DRYER

The compressed air is passed through a pressure vessel filled with an adsorbent media such as activated alumina, silica gel. The desiccant can bring the dew point of the water vapor in the air down to -40 degrees Celsius or below. This means that the air will not condense (deposition) water until it is cooled to -40 degrees Celsius. In practice two cylinders with desiccant are used; one is drying the air, while the other vessel is being regenerated. The switching of the vessels and the regeneration sequence is typically done automatically via solenoid operated valves (V1 and V2). The regeneration of the desiccant vessel will be as per following method: Heatless "pressure-swing" drying which uses part of the dry compressed air coming from the other vessel to dry the desiccant in the vessel being generated at lower pressure. Initially V1 will be open(valve V3 and V2 will be closed) and compressed air from compressor will go to Tower A and dew point of water vapour will come down to -40 Deg C and air will go to after filter. This operation will be for 5 minutes. Now V1 will be closed and V2 will be open and compressed air from compressor will come to Tower B and dew point of water vapour will come down to( -)40 deg and dry air will go to after filter. Some portion (approx-6 %) of dry air will go to Tower A through orifice plate to dry the silica gel in Tower A(this process called as re- generation). After regeneration process air will go to vent through V3 valve open and V4 valve closed. In the next cycle, valve V1 will be open and valve V2 will be closed and compressed air from compressor will come to Tower A and dew point of water vapour will come down to( -)40 deg and dry air will go to after filter. Some portion (approx- 6 %) of dry air will go to Tower B through orifice plate to dry the silica gel in Tower A. After regeneration process air will go to vent through V4 valve open and V3 valve closed.