Rapid thermal swing dryer for compressed gases

A cyclic process for drying a compressed gas stream comprising:

• a) passing a feed gas stream comprising moisture at ambient conditions to a shell side passage of a first adsorber heat exchanger of at least two adsorber heat exchangers each of said adsorber heat exchangers comprising a shell-side passage and a tube-side passage wherein the tube-side passage comprises at least one tube having an outside tube surface within the shell-side passage and a hollow interior surface and an adsorbent disposed on said hollow interior surface within the tube-side passage to provide a first exchanged stream comprising moisture;
• b) passing said first exchanged stream to a compressor to raise the first exchanged stream to a delivery pressure and a delivery temperature and to provide a pressurized stream and passing the pressurized stream to the shell-side passage of another adsorber heat exchanger of the at least two adsorber heat exchangers to exchange heat with the tube-side passage, to deposit a portion of the moisture on the outside tube surface within the shell-side passage, and to provide a second exchanged stream;
• c) passing said second exchanged stream to the tube-side passage of the first adsorber heat exchanger and therein contacting said second exchanged stream with the adsorbent to adsorb moisture from said second exchanged stream and to produce a dry compressed gas stream;
• d) passing at least a portion of said dry compressed gas stream to the tube-side passage of the other adsorber heat exchanger to purge said adsorbent and produce a waste stream;
• and
• e) periodically interchanging the first adsorber heat exchanger with the other adsorber heat exchanger and repeating steps (a) through (d) to provide said cyclic process.