[giruffo]

Hallo to the forum.

I (shortly) introduce myself.
I am a chemical engineer.
I have been working about 10 years in the field oil&gas process engineer and commissioning engineer.

I would like to know if anybody in the forum has already treated the problem of depressurizing a a gas drier containing a bed of silica gel.

A supplier informed me that short time of depressurization could damage the particles of silica gel that could "explode" for the internal pressure.

The recommendation of the supplier was not to exeed 3 bar per minute for the pressurization.
This, of  course give me some problem for what concerns the respect of API indication. (to reach half pressure or 100 psi in 15 minutes)

Can anybody confirm that silica gel get damaged for too fast depressurization? can anybody indicate any literature reference about it?


thanks in advance to everybody that will be so kind to send my any suggestion.


Giruffo

[eugenedakin]

Hello giruffo,

Thankyou for the history.

I have depressurized silica gel before, and yes there is a concern.  The concern 'should' only be minor.  The reason why I say 'should', is the silica should not be that fragile.  If it is that fragile (from migrating methane, etc into the substructure of the silica gel) then this would be the wrong silica gel for the application.  The supplier should know better .

In the case of extreme high pressure applications (>5000 psi) I would definately meet API recommendations for depressurization.

Since you may be replacing or topping-up your silica gel beads in the future, check with various suppliers as to the 'sensetivity' of depressurization.  Usually, well prepared suppliers have this information.  Others... well.. you know

I hope this helps,

Eugene