Investigation of the water desorption from components newly installed in a dry gas distribution system

Abstract

Abstract Moisture in industrial gas affects the quality of products, and thus, studies on the water desorption behaviours of the components are necessary for industries to keep their gas distribution system extremely dry. In this study, the water desorption characteristics of a gas filter was evaluated, when it was newly installed in a setup operating in the trace-moisture regime. The desorption kinetics of the water based on the Arrhenius equation was utilized for analysing the experimental observations. The characteristics of water desorption from the filter were examined under a dried N2 gas flow with varying environmental conditions, such as temperature, pressure, flow rate and preconditioning relative humidity. For practical applications, a drying time of the filter, taken until the water vapour fraction reaches a target concentration (10 nmol·mol−1), was measured under varying conditions. Finally, the uncertainty budget on the drying time was evaluated. The findings of this study provide a practical insight on the water desorption behaviour, which would be useful for maintaining dry gas supply lines.