Limitations of Portable Pressure Swing Adsorption Processes for Air Separation

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-5-2018

Publication Title

Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research

Abstract

Copyright © 2018 American Chemical Society. Decreasing cycle time for a pressure swing adsorption (PSA) process typically increases adsorbent utilization, often represented in industry by the bed size factor (BSF). A greater adsorbent utilization results in a lower BSF and smaller overall process size, which is highly attractive for portable PSA systems. A limit on adsorbent utilization is represented by a minimum BSF as cycle time decreases. However, experimental evidence of the existence of a minimum BSF as a function of cycle time is currently lacking in literature, especially for a multicolumn process. In this study, a two column small scale PSA process was used to measure a minimum BSF. While increasing pressure ratio caused an overall lower minimum BSF, it had little influence on the cycle time of the minimum. Other factors affecting the BSF were explored to understand what produced a minimum BSF in our system. Macropore diffusional resistance was reasoned as a possible cause of the minimum BSF in this study.

Volume

57

Issue

35

DOI

10.1021/acs.iecr.8b02237

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS