Dynamic moving coil induction heating for scalable electrification of temperature swing adsorption processes

Induction heating is gaining attention as an electrified heating method for temperature swing adsorption (TSA) because it can deliver fast and uniform heat directly within the adsorbent bed. However, scaling this approach is challenging due to limitations in coil size and the need to operate at lower frequencies in larger systems. To address these issues, this study introduces a dynamic moving coil induction heating concept that enables scalable, induction heating of adsorption column. Instead of heating the entire column at once, a short induction coil travels along the adsorption column during regeneration, applying localized, high-frequency heating sequentially to different sections and decoupling coil length from bed length. It was experimentally proved that, at a constant magnetic field strength, increasing the operating frequency from 160 kHz to 219 kHz resulted in 2.3-folds higher heating rate. Building on this, dynamic adsorption/desorption tests were carried out using a 17.5 cm long fixed bed, filled with 13X/Fe₃O₄ composite extrudates using sweep (moving coil) and segmented (step and hold) heating. Unidirectional, bidirectional, and reverse bidirectional flow modes as well as segmented heating were tested in the current range of 100.8–136.5 A and movement paces of 5–15 s/cm. A nearly linear relationship was observed between regeneration efficiency (35–86%) and the total applied induction heat (0.07–0.45 MJ/kg). These results show that the use of a segmented and moving induction coil provides a viable pathway for scaling up induction heating for the electrification of the heating step in TSA processes.