Method for operating an adsorption-based system for removing water and potentially other components from a process feed stream, the system including at least two dehydration units, each comprising an adsorption bed, the method including the steps of:
- i) providing an initial adsorption capacity as adsorption capacity estimate for each adsorption bed for a first adsorption cycle;
- ii) dehydrating the process feed stream by operating the adsorption-based system in regenerative mode, wherein at least one unit of the at least two dehydration units is in an adsorption cycle, att4—wherein at least another unit of the at least two dehydration units is being regenerated, wherein each unit of the at least two dehydration units comprises an adsorbent and wherein the process feed stream comprises at least one hydrocarbon;
- iii) obtaining process data in real-time from one or more sensors at a predetermined time resolution, the sensors comprising at least one moisture sensor at a specified location in each of the dehydration units;
- iv) estimating an updated adsorption capacity for each adsorption bed based on a first adsorption capacity degradation model and the process data obtained in step iii);
- v) for a subsequent adsorption cycle, replacing the adsorption capacity estimate provided in step i) for each bed with the updated adsorption capacity estimated in step iv);
- vi) monitoring the at least one moisture sensor during each adsorption cycle to detect water breakthrough with respect to a threshold;
- vii) estimating a quantity of water adsorbed by a respective adsorption bed at the time of water breakthrough;
- viii) calculate an updated water adsorption capacity estimate (qcurrent) using the formula:
- qcurrent=W/[(Lsz,current+C*LMTZ,current)*Abed*ρbulk]
- wherein:
- W is the quantity of water adsorbed by the respective adsorbent bed at the time of breakthrough;
- Lsz,current is an estimated bed length from a top of the respective adsorbent bed to a lower front of a Saturated Zone for the same bed and at the same point in time as W;
- LMTZ,current is the estimated length of a mass transfer zone (MTZ) for the same bed and at the same point in time as W;
- Abed is cross sectional area of the respective adsorption bed;
- and
- ρbulk is a bulk density of the respective adsorbent bed;
- ix) using the updated adsorption capacity estimate from step viii) to provide a second degradation model;
- x) replacing the first adsorption capacity degradation model with the second degradation model provided in step ix);
- xi) for a subsequent adsorption cycle, estimating the updated adsorption capacity for each adsorption bed based on the second adsorption capacity degradation model;
- xii) adjusting an adsorption cycle time of the at least one unit that is in the adsorption cycle based on the updated adsorption capacity;
- and
- xiii stopping a flow of the process feed stream to the at least one unit that is in the adsorption cycle at an end of the adsorption cycle time.