Date of Award

2014

Degree Type

Thesis

Department

Chemical and Biomedical Engineering

First Advisor

Talu, Orhan

Subject Headings

Gases -- Separation, Separation (Technology), Adsorption, Oxygen, Zeolites, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, oxygen concentrator, PSA process, adsorption, zeolites, thermodynamics

Abstract

Oxygen is used in a variety of chemical processes and for medical purposes throughout the world. Pressure swing adsorption (PSA) has become a viable alternative to cryogenic distillation for the separation of oxygen from air with the development of advanced adsorbents like zeolites. PSA processes are inherently complex because it is a dynamic process. Efficient operation of a PSA process is necessary in order to utilize the capacity of the adsorbent as much as possible and reduce the power requirements of the process.In this thesis, a novel zeolite adsorbent was utilized in a PSA process for oxygen generation with the goal of designing cycles for high recovery and a low bed size factor (BSF). A secondary goal was to determine the kinetic limit of the novel zeolite to determine how fast of an adsorption rate the zeolite has and if it is a candidate for rapid PSA processes. This thesis demonstrates cycles that efficiently utilize the new adsorbent at different operating conditions. This provides a range of operating conditions from which to determine how to best utilize the zeolite to develop larger PSA processes. Also, it was found that this novel zeolite is in fact an enhanced zeolite with a fast adsorption rate capable of supporting rapid PSA processes. Unfortunately due to system constraints, the kinetic limit was not found

Download
COinS