Activated Alumina Balls for Effective Organic Liquid Drying

Activated Alumina as Desiccant

Activated Alumina is a widely used desiccant. It is available in beads, balls and granular forms. In all these three forms, the desiccant has different uses. The huge demand for Activated Alumina can be attributed to its highly porous structure, greater surface area-to-mass ratio, pole molecular absorbent property, high selectivity, more absorbent rate, and greater resistance to thermal shock. Not only these, there are other properties as well, which make Activated Alumina a highly sought-after desiccant. These include bringing down the cost of production, reduce operating costs and energy usages. Now you know why companies prefer Activated Alumina over any other desiccant. 

Activated Alumina Balls

In the ball form, Activated Alumina desiccant displays lower abrasion, more strength, lesser cracks, no powdery and no expansion. Activated Alumina balls are also high in quality, have large combined capacity and are highly durable. Other favorable properties are that the Activated Alumina Balls are insoluble in water and dissolve in strong acids. They also do not split water, can withstand high temperature and show resistance to visualization poisoning. 

These features are ideal for drying of various organic liquids and for removing pollution materials like paraffin, HF and H2S, SO2 from water meant for drinking and household purposes. 

Activated Alumina Balls in Drying Organic Liquids

As mentioned earlier, Activated Alumina Balls are ideal for the purpose of deep drying organic liquids. Gas drying Activated Alumina is used on ethylene, cracked gas and propylene. It also finds use in instrument air drying and air separation for H2O2. 

The drying of liquids and gases by Activated Alumina can be divided into the following:

1) Drying organic liquids like Liquid Petroleum Gas, propylene, butane among others.

2) Drying steam cracked liquids like cyclohexane, gasoline, chlorine and fluorinated hydrocarbons, aromatic solvents, etc.

3) Drying moisture-laden air and gases like cracked gases, catalytic reforming recycle gas, synthesis gas, methyl chloride, natural gas and Liquid Petroleum Gas.

4) Effective removal of metallic traces, BF3, TBC, HCl, HF and fluorinated hydrocarbons from various gases and liquids.

5) Effective drying of hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and CO2 among others.

6) Activated Alumina is used for air drying (PSA,TSA) and air separation purposes. 

7) Gas drying in air separation plants. Helps dry inert/rare gases and common ones like hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, CO2.

8) Effective as a catalyst for claus conversion in sub dew point operations. 

All the above mentioned uses thereby showcase the effectiveness of Activated Alumina balls in drying organic liquids.

Activated Alumina: Best Air Drying Desiccant

Understanding Activated Alumina Adsorbent

One of the most commonly used adsorbents, Activated Alumina is known for its numerous pores and large surface area. Both these features help the adsorbent take in more moisture molecules over a larger area. Another highlight of Activated Alumina as a desiccant is that it can take in all the liquids and gases without undergoing any kind of physical as well as chemical transformation. Activated Alumina functions by the means of a process known as adsorption. This desiccant is mainly used for drying air. The presence of humidity molecules in the air can prove to be quite harmful as it can lead to problems like ice formation, corrosion in the machines. Thus, it becomes highly important to remove moisture molecules from air for the smooth functioning of equipment. also Check our Latest article here:Oxygen Absorbers | Food Storage | O-Buster Suppliers

The functioning of the Activated Alumina adsorbent is very simple. The air, which is meant to be dehumidified, is passed through the Activated Alumina. As it passes through all the moisture present in the air will stick to the Alumina and only the dried air will pass forward. The vapor molecules in the air are trapped in the Activated Alumina desiccant. Thus, with the help of the alumina adsorbent, the air is completely dried.

Activated Alumina in Air drying

Sometimes it becomes important that all the moisture present is removed from the air being circulated. If compressed air having a pressure dew point of around -40 °C / -40 F or lesser is what is needed, then one should opt for a heat less adsorption dryer, which is both energy as well as cost effective. These heats less adsorption dryers carry out their work with the help of desiccant material like Activated Alumina or Molecular Sieve. These two desiccants are best suited to remove all traces of moisture from the compressed air.

The functioning of the heat less adsorption dryer is explained as follows:- The dryer consists of two identical adsorption towers filled with equal amounts of either Activated Alumina or Molecular Sieve. There is no hard-and-fast rule that only one type of desiccant can be used. Either of the two can be used as both are equally effective.

As the drying process begins, the compressed air moves from the bottom to the top of the tower and as it passes through the Activated Alumina desiccant, all the moisture present is readily absorbed. As the moisture intake takes place, the desiccant bed will start to get heavy and eventually become saturated. When the desiccant in the first tower is completely saturated, it automatically shuts down.

The next step is to remove the saturated desiccant from the first tower. The desiccant is purged by passing dry compressed air from the top of the tower to the bottom and for it to come in contact with the ejected moisture molecules.

So while all this is happening in the first tower, what is going on in the second tower, you may ask? During the time period when the desiccant in the first tower is being regenerated, the second tower is functioning as normal. This is in order to ensure that there is a continuous flow of dried air in the system.

While the desiccant bed of one tower will be regenerated, the other tower will be in production in order to guarantee a continuous flow of dried air. The ever flowing stream of dried compressed air is an indication that both the towers filled with Activated Alumina desiccant are functioning smoothly. 

There are many factors influencing how the adsorption dryers perform. These include the temperature of the dryers, their operating pressure as well as flow. If the operating temperatures are raised beyond a certain point, it will drastically affect the production process.

Activated Alumina Helps in Effective Water Treatment

Activated Alumina – An Introduction

Activated Alumina is a widely used form of desiccant, mainly employed for the purification and treatment of water made available to businesses and households by municipal corporations. Activated Alumina has two main highlights- it is a very porous material and has a large surface area. This helps the Activated Alumina to absorb more moisture/impurities over a vast area. Along with its use as a popular desiccant, Activated Alumina is also widely used to remove impurities and harmful substances like fluoride, arsenic and selenium from the water being used by households. Activated Alumina is manufactured by dehydroxylating aluminium hydroxide till a highly porous material is obtained.

Role of Activated Alumina in Water Treatment

As mentioned earlier, one of the major uses of Activated Alumina is in the treatment of water being supplied to town and cities by their respective municipal corporations. Activated Alumina is mainly used to remove dangerous substances like fluoride, which is very harmful to the human body as it can cause fluorosis. When the water comes in contact with Activated Alumina, then the fluoride levels are seen to fall from 10.00 ppm to below 1.0 ppm. This is the correct level of fluoride recommended for water made available to households and businesses. 

Another advantage of using Activated Alumina is that it covers a large surface area. So when more water molecules are in contact with the Activated Alumina, more impurities will be removed from the water. Other factors needed for efficient water treatment include more activated alumina balls in the filter, lower water temperature and lower pH levels (i.e. the water should be more acidic). 

Regeneration of Activated Alumina

Another major advantage of using Activated Alumina is that it can easily be regenerated and thus proves to be quite cost-effective for municipal corporations around the world. Once the Activated Alumina has been used, it is regenerated with the help of a dilute caustic solution. This caustic solution removes all the absorbed fluoride and other impurities from the Activated Alumina filter and then it is all ready to be used once again. This regeneration quality saves a lot of time and money for municipal corporations as they can use the same Activated Alumina many times over.