DESCRIPTION OF OPERATION

The Doyle Series HP Heatless air and gas dryers are designed for capacities ranging from 10 to 3,000 SCFM and outlet dew points from -40F to -100F
at line pressure. Standard units are designed to handle saturated inlet air or gas at 60 to 150 PSIG and 40 to 120F.

Regeneration is accomplished by dry air/gas purge at atmospheric pressure plus a short five (5) minute vessel switching cycle to utilize
the heat release from adsorption of moisture on the adsorbent. This process requires no heat for regeneration; however the purge air/gas
rate for regeneration is considerably higher than heat reactivated air dryers. Heatless air dryers
are normally the most economical selection for use with air cooled compressor aftercoolers where the dryer Inlet air temperature is 110
to 120 F.

) Structure layout and working process

Structure of heatless regenerated dryer is relatively simple(see figure2- 28)
At the bottom of adsorption towers, there are equipped with screens(2),and at the outlet there is a columned wire mesh(3) to avoid
compressed air escaping from towers. One tower's inlet and outlet are connected to another tower by pipes ,in order to switch the two
towers independently, at the connections relative valves are installed.
There are four valves at the compressed air inlets at the bottom of dryers, they are respectively called switch valves and discharge
valves. Discharge valves (6)control the towers pressure discharge ,regenerated air discharge and towers pressure equalizing after
finishing regeneration. Two switch valves (1)control the flow direction of compressed air, that is to decide the switch between adsorption
and regeneration. During dryer running, all the four valves work by cross corner. For small sized adsorption dryers, solenoid valves are
adopted to be switch valves, while for large size ,pneumatic ball valves and pneumatic butterfly valves are adopted.

2-28
At the outlet of dryer top, compressed air enters into pipe by check valves after being dried, and part of dry air for regenerated use will
enter into the regenerated tower by by- pass pipe, there is a orifice plate or ball valve(5) on the by-pass pipe, diameter of orifice plate or
opening size of ball valve is depended on the purge air(regenerated use air) capacity.
Working process of heatless regenerated dryers
After start of the dryer. Tower A runs adsorption while tower B runs regeneration. Under the preset timing control,1-A open,1-B close,6-B
open and 6-A close. Wet air will firstly enter into tower A, after being dried, dry compressed air will enter into downstream pipe by 4A,while part of dry air will enter into Tower B by orifice plate(5) due to to the differential pressure, air pressure will be decreased to near
atmospheric pressure,and air volume will increase in the same proportion due to the pressure drop,which can make the purge air
humidity is only a fraction of dry air,now the water partial pressure of this especial dryer air is much lower than the air inside desiccant
bed of tower B.Water vapour inside desiccant bed will be released to purge air to be taken away due to the differential pressure,and
finally the purge air will be discharged to atmosphere through 6-B and silencer 7.
After finishing the regeneration,switch can not be implemented immediately between tower A and B,we should firstly close discharge
valve6-B,waiting pressure of B tower to increase to system pressure,namely process of pressure equalizing.This is because during the
regeneration,tower A is under the atmosphere pressure,big differential pressure from adsorption status,if switch directly,there will be
pressure shock,and mechanical problem might be caused in extreme cases.
When the two towers' pressure is same,control system will send a signal for switching----Tower A regeneration and Tower B adsorption
Heatless regenerated dryers need only a few valves,and switch valves are controlled by time directly or indirectly.If use a few time relays
to control switch valves for cheaper cost,there might be big time error which is really unreliable despite cost saving.Our company adopts
higher cost PLC controller.

()Operational features
There are mainly two operational features for heatless regenerative dryer: Short working period and large purge air loss.
a)Working period
For heatless regenerated dryer, as the normal temperature purge air can only adsorb the moisture from desiccant's external surface, we
only use the surface adsorption function, therefore the adsorption capacity is less than 0.5%.
For heatless regenerated dryer, adsorption is approximatively to be thought as isothermal process, regenerating process shall make full
use of the adsorption heat kept inside the desiccant bed. The longer the adsorption time is, the more adsorption heat will be taken away
by the dry air, which is related to the regeneration effect, in extreme case, even cannot go on regenerating.
Based on the two aspects mentioned above, the working period of heatless regenerated dryer cannot be too long, usually to be
10min.Our company set the working period of heatless regenerated dryers to be 10min,and working period of heatless dryer is 4min.
hort working period of heatless dryers determines the high frequency action of relative valves, for example, if the period is 10min,then the
switch between adsorption/regeneration need to be implemented every 5min,switch valves and discharge valves also need action every
5min accordingly, namely 12times every hour. If we calculate one year to be 8000 hours, then relative valves of heatless dryers need
action 96000 times every a year. Therefore, for the heatless regenerated dryers, switch valves belong to consumable parts, whose
quality has direct influence on the dryer operation.

b)Purge air
Heatless regenerated dryer work by the principal of PSA ,and pressure swing regeneration type, namely using partial dry air to
depressurize for desorption, without any external energy, therefore, more purge air loss needed.
Without regard to the heat loss during the process of adsorption, and assume that the regenerated air discharged to the atmosphere
belongs to saturated air at atmosphere pressure, and no temperature difference between wet air and purge air,then regenerated
flow rate can be calculated according to 2-1:

2-1 In this formula

Vrf regenerated flow rate m 3 /min
V Dryer inlet air flow rate m 3 /min
di Water content at air inlet
do- Water content at air inlet
In the formula 2-1,we have assumed the purge air temperature is same with wet air at inlet.As mentioned in
Chapter 1,in the situation of same temperature,water partial pressure is same for two kinds of saturated air with
different pressure.Water content varies inversely with the pressure.Therefore,for heatless regenerated dryer
regenerated flow can be stated as specific value of inlet pressure and regenerated pressure,and expression with
percentage of inlet air flow rate(formula 2-2).

2-2
In this formula
Vrf Regenerated air flow rate %

Pi inlet wet air pressure(Absolute Pressure)

Pr Refrigerated air pressure(Absolute Pressure)
There is a need to point out that the calculation results of formula 4-1 and 4-2 are based on an idealized case assumed,which is the least
purge air loss.In fact,the actual purge air loss of heatless regenerated dryer is more than the calculation from formula 2-1 and 2-2.This is
because:
In order to overcome the resistance from desiccant bed and discharge the regenerated air successfully,the actual pressure of
regenerated air Pr is slightly higher than the atmosphere pressure,which will increase the purge air loss.
Emptying loss.Heatless regenerated dryer switches frequently,for every switch,operating compressed air in the tower need to be
emptied,and this part of loss hasn't been stated in formula 2-1 and 2-2.
Heat loss.Heatless regenerated dryer is based on the TSA principal,Suppose that all heat the desorption process needed comes from
the adsorption heat collected inside the desiccant bed.Desiccant belongs to poor heat conductor ,thus we can regard there's no heat loss
in the short cycle period,however,dry air will surely take away part of heat,the heat loss can only be replenished by increasing purge air.
For heatless regenerated dryer,in order to reduce the purge air loss,we can only increase the inlet pressure and decrease the inlet
temperature.

c)Pressure loss
Pressure loss of heatless regenerated dryer is the sum of pressure loss at pipeline,valves and adsorption bed.Figure2-30 shows the
pressure loss at different velocity (for empty tower) and operating pressure,the unit is mm water column(10m water column equal to
0.1Mpa).Our heatless regenerated dryer pressure loss is less than 0.02Mpa(At rated condition)

2-29Pressure loss at different velocity(for empty tower) and operating pressure

Heated regeneration
Heated regeneration dryer is based on the principal of TSA,which has better regeneration condition than heatless regenerated
dryer.Heating can realize deep adsorption of the desiccant.therefore dynamic adsorption capacity of heated dryer is much more than
heatless dryer.
Compared with heatless regenerated dryer,there are more types of heated dryers,but all types are under the same adsorption
principal,just different from heating methods and purge air source and so on.

Based on the heater position,heated

regenerated dryers are devided into two

types:internal heated regenerated

dryer and external heated regenerated

dryer.And according to the purge air

source,external heated dryer can be devided

into another two kinds:Tepid

regenerated dryer by dry air and blower

regenerated dryer by ambient air.For

industrial enterprise,there are many heating

sources can be used ,such as

electric,steam and hot oil.In recent years,heat of

compression from compressor is

used as regenerated source in the country,and

in foreign countries,vacuum

regenerated dryer is developed well based on

the external blower regenerated

dryer.

Heaters are installed inside the

towers for internal heated regenerated

dryer,hence the desiccant is heated directly by heater,which can make the gathered water vapour the separate from the desiccant
surface,meanwhile using little dry air to take them away.Desiccant is of poor thermal conductivityso desiccant inside the adsorption
towers can not be heated even,which cause incomplete regeneration,further more,as the heaters are installed inside the adsorption
towers,it's uneasy to maintain and unsafe,this kind of dryer has basically been eliminated
Tepid regenerated
Just as the name implies, regenerated temperature of tepid regenerated dryer is slightly lower than external regenerated dryer. But
different manufacturers have different understanding about tepid regeneration. There are big difference between kinds of parameters,
such as regenerated temperature, working period, desiccant filling amount and so on.(but most the same for heatless regenerated dryer)
Structure layout and working process
Structure of tepid dryer is slightly more complicated than heatless dryer(as figure 2-31),mainly has increased a heater(8) and two check
valves(9).

2-31Woking process of tepid regenerated dryer

After start of the dryer.Tower A runs adsorption while tower B runs regeneration.Under the preset timing control,1-A open,1-B close,6-B
open and 6-A close.Wet air will firstly enter into tower A,after being dried,dry compressed air will enter into downstream pipe by 4-A,while
part of dry air will enter into heater(8) by orifice plate(5) due to to the differential pressure,and this part of dry air will be heated to setting
value and then enter into tower B to make desorption ,and the wet regenerated air will finally be discharged to atmosphere through 6-B
and silencer 7.This process is called"heating stage"
After a period of heating regeneration,the regenerated air temperature will come to the setting value,in this case,heater will stop
heating.Unheated regenerated dry air will enter into Tower B and cool down the desiccant bed until adsorption temperature.This process
is called"Cooling stage"
After the cooling stage,Tower B need pressure equalizing to finish the whole regeneration process.

()Operational features
Longer working period,smaller purge air loss(7% at rated working condition),and need extra energy source.
a)Working period
Desiccant in tepid dryer belongs to deep adsorption,dynamic adsorption capacity is more than heatless dryer, namely for same amount
of desiccant,this kind of dryer can treat more compressed air,hence the adsorption time can be properly delayed,Due to the poor heat
conductivityit will spend a lot of time to heat the desiccant bed to setting value.From the regenerated process of tepid desiccant
dryer,we can know that after the end of heating,there is still a process of cooling,which still need a long time.Caused by the two reasons

mentioned above,the working period of tepid dryer is longer.Our company has summarized the working period from different regenerated
temperature,and also determined the working period of RSXJ series to be 90-120min