A model developed for catalytic packed bed reactors and consistently accounting for the influence of the tube wall on porosity, flow and transport phenomena is used in order to simulate the operation of packed bed adsorbers. By comparison of simulation results with reduced versions of the model the influence of the wall on the adsorber performance is worked out and found to be major at low ratios between tube and particle diameter. The interaction between maldistribution, thermal effects and intraparticle resistances in such adsorber tubes is discussed.