What happen after breakthrough occur??

We adsorp moisture from nat. gas from 40 lb/MM to 0.1 lb/MMscf. Vendor suggest life time = 4 yrs., but we scare that breakthrough 'ld happen before design-life.
What happen when breakthrough occur?? Somone said moisture will be increased so fast and has water (liquid) in outlet gas? Is it true ? How do you control or design to change bed? also does it longer or shorter than vendor design ? Bad luck is we don't have moistue probe along vessle.

 

[Samiran]

Dear Ritawa,

There must be some reason why you're drying the gas to 0.1 lb/MMSCF. Check for the operation downstream - do you see any liquefaction system where the operating temp is about -50 or so. When breakthru is occuring the dewpoint of the gas is increasing and when this dewpoint is higher than your downstream operating temp, water will start freezing out and plug the strainers (?) and you'll see a high dp. This, if not controlled, will invariably lead to shutdown.

Breakthru is indeed very fast. The curve is exponential. Unless you've good trends you may miss it and will be too late for any control. Oscillating quartz type analysers are the best for this purpose manufactured by Ametek. But expensive!

Samiran