Understanding N₂ Kinetics on LiLSX Commercial Beads: An Experimental and Modeling Approach for Novel Material Characterization

The measurement of accurate nitrogen adsorption kinetics in state-of-the-art LiLSX beads is essential for the optimization of vacuum swing processes for the production of oxygen. A novel methodology is presented in order to establish experimentally the presence of combined heat and mass transfer phenomena. The very rapid uptake kinetics are measured using the adsorption differential volumetric apparatus and interpreted using a nonisothermal model. The novel methodology includes the determination of all the physical parameters of the model from the simultaneous regression of all experimental runs at different pressure levels. The approach has been demonstrated on two Zeochem binderless LiLSX beaded samples, for which traditional methods proved inconclusive, allowing to determine the relative kinetic performance.