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AssigneeIntraMicron, Inc.
InventorsPaul S. Dimick, Hongyun Yang, Bruce J. Tatarchuk
Estimating the term…
Methods and devices for directly measuring the degree of saturation or degree of deactivation of an adsorbent and/or catalytic bed are described herein. The devices contain an inlet, an outlet, a catalytic and/or adsorbent bed, and optionally a support bed for supporting the catalytic and/or adsorbent bed. The devices further contain one or more structures attached to the reactor that allow for insertion of one or more sensors into the reactor. The sensor is used to spectroscopically interrogate the adsorbent and/or catalyst in situ, providing real-time information regarding adsorbant saturation and/or catalyst deactivation. The devices and methods described herein can be used to determine the saturation degree of adsorbent materials or catalyst beds that are involved in gas-liquid and liquid-liquid heterogeneous systems, such as those used in scrubbing and extraction.
1-20. (canceled)
A method for determining the degree of saturation or deactivation of an adsorbent bed or a catalyst bed which is in contact with one or more species to be adsorbed, the method comprising measuring changes in the electromagnetic radiation reflected from the bed at one or more locations within the bed and determining the degree of saturation or deactivation of the bed.
The method of claim 1, wherein the reflected electromagnetic radiation is measured using UV-Vis spectroscopy.
The method of claim 1, wherein the reflected electromagnetic radiation is measured using Raman spectroscopy.
The method of claim 1, wherein the reflected electromagnetic radiation is measured using Infrared spectroscopy.
The method of claim 1, wherein the changes in the electromagnetic radiation are measured at the bottom of the bed.
The method of claim 1, wherein the changes in the electromagnetic radiation are measured at multiple locations within the bed along the direction of flow.
The method of claim 1, wherein the adsorbent bed or the catalyst bed changes color in response to the adsorption of the one or more species, wherein the color change corresponds to a specific wave number and frequency reflected from the adsorbent bed or the catalyst bed.
The method of claim 1, wherein breakthrough of the adsorbent bed or the catalyst bed is determined by the maximum of absolute value of the first-order derivative of a spectroscopic property or zero of the second-order derivative at a single wavelength or multiple wavelengths or a range of wavelength or multiple ranges of wavelengths as a function of time.
The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more species that adsorb to the adsorbent material or catalyst bed is hydrogen sulfide.
The method of claim 1, wherein the degree of saturation of the adsorbent material or catalyst bed can be determined in the presence of competing species that can induce a change in the surface chemistry of the adsorbent material or catalyst bed.
The method of claim 1, wherein the adsorbent bed or catalyst bed is selected from the group consisting of zinc oxide (ZnO), supported zinc oxide, iron oxides (FeO, Fe2O3),supported iron oxides, copper oxides (Cu2O and CuO), supported copper oxides, zeolites, and combinations thereof.
The method of claim 1, wherein the changes in the electromagnetic radiation reflected from the bed at one or more locations within the bed are measured by a probe inserted at one or more locations within the bed.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.