| abstract |
A heaterless adsorption apparatus for the purification and fractionation of an air feed in the absence of pretreating the air feed to remove moisture or other contaminants, including at least one adsorber column which has at least two adsorption zones, a first zone for the removal of water vapor or other contaminants from the feed and a second zone for the fractionation of the purified air, the column being sized so that the heat of adsorption released during adsorption of water vapor or other contaminants in the first zone is retained in the column, and the second zone sized so as to contain sufficient adsorbent to carry out the fractionation unaffected by the heat front generated by the heat of adsorption released in the first zone and to prevent breakthrough of the mass transfer front during fractionation. |