Significant radial profiles of concentration and temperature may exist in packed bed adsorbers, leading to a different breakthrough behavior at the wall than in the core of the bed. Respective data have been gained by near-infrared tomography for zeolite and water in relatively narrow tubes, and are compared with the predictions of a two-dimensional model. Though the agreement is satisfactory in total, some deviations from the experimental results have been observed. Model reductions can not be recommended due to complex interactions between thermal effects, channelling, and non-linear equilibrium in the dynamic process.