Kinetic Modeling of Isothermal or Non-isothermal Adsorption in a Pellet: Application to Adsorption Heat Pumps

Understanding the interaction between a fluid and a solid phase is of fundamental importance to the design of an adsorption process. Because the heat effects associated with adsorption are comparatively large, the assumption of isothermal behavior is a valid approximation only when uptake rates are relatively slow. In this article, we propose to determine when it is needed to choose the isothermal or non-isothermal assumption according to two physical parameters alpha (ratio convection/capacity) and beta(quantity of energy/capacity). The proposed problem is solved by a mathematical method in the Laplace domain. When alpha-> infinite (infinitely high heat transfer coefficient) or beta->0(infinitely large heat capacity), the limiting case is isothermal. When the diffusion is rapid (alpha