Parametric Study of a Pressure Swing Adsorption Process

The performance of a pressure swing adsorption (PSA) process for production of high purity hydrogen from a binary methane-hydrogen mixture is simulated using a detailed, adiabatic PSA model. An activated carbon is used for selective adsorption of methane over hydrogen. The effects of various independent process variables (feed gas pressure and composition, purge gas pressure and quantity, configuration of process steps) on the key dependent process variables (hydrogen recovery at high purity, hydrogen production capacity) are evaluated. It is demonstrated that many different combinations of PSA process steps, their operating conditions, and the feed gas conditions can be chosen to produce an identical product gas with different hydrogen recovery and productivity.     

Hydrogen separation by multi-bed pressure swing adsorption of synthesis gas

The performance of multi-bed pressure swing adsorption (PSA) process for producing high purity hydrogen from synthesis gas was studied experimentally and theoretically using layered beds of activated carbon and zeolite 5A. Nonisothermal and nonadiabatic models, considering linear driving force model and Dual-site Langmuir adsorption isotherm model, were used. The effects of the following PSA variables on separation process were investigated: linear velocity of feed, adsorption time and purge gas quantity. As a result, we recovered a high purity H₂ product (99.999%) with a recovery of 66% from synthesis gas when the pressure was cycled between 1 and 8 atm at ambient temperature.     

Effect of Operation Symmetry on Pressure Swing Adsorption Process

In a multi-bed pressure swing adsorption (PSA) process, cycle steps with gas flow transferring from one bed to another such as equalization, purge, etc. are generally practiced to enhance the product recovery. However, if the flows for the connected beds in these steps are not balanced, the PSA process may not operate in a symmetrical manner. In the modeling of the PSA process, most of the simulations consider only one bed and assume that the rest of the beds would behave in a same way. In order to assess the impact of bed symmetry on the PSA performance, a new PSA model capable of studying bed symmetry in a two-bed system is developed. Experimental results from this paper show that uneven equalization flow can result in a lower product purity and a peculiar purity curve at different equalization levels. This phenomenon can be successfully predicted by this model. Simulation results also show that in large-scale PSA units, asymmetrical operation can cause drastically different temperature profiles in different adsorbers and hence a much lower performance. This paper demonstrates the importance of maintaining operation symmetry in PSA processes.     

Backfill Cycle of a Layered Bed H2 PSA Process

The backfill cycle of two-bed PSA process using activated carbon beds, zeolite 5A beds, and layered beds was studied experimentally and theoretically to recover high purity H₂ from coke oven gas. In a layered bed PSA, a comparison was made between two PSA processes with/without a backfill step before the feed pressurization step. Since the backfill step made the adsorption bed rich in H₂ and this led to a rather steep concentration wave front at the feed pressurization step, incorporating a backfill step resulted in an increase in product purity with a decrease in recovery. Each step of the single-adsorbent and layered bed PSA processes with a backfill step was simulated with a dynamic model incorporating mass, energy, and momentum balances. The model agreed well with the experimental results in predicting the product H₂ purity and recovery, thus giving a basic understanding of the bed dynamics of a backfill cycle. While the concentration and temperature profiles of a layered bed in each step showed characteristic behavior of each adsorbent in each layer, the product purity of a layered bed was not between the limits of two single-adsorbent bed processes. The concentration profiles predicted by simulation showed that CO and N₂ played an important role in obtaining high H₂ purity.     

Novel simulated moving-bed adsorber for the fractionation of gas mixtures

The separation of propylene-propane mixture is an energy intensive operation commercially practiced using cryogenic distillation. The separation by pressure swing adsorption has been studied as an alternative. A fixed-bed pressure swing adsorption yields the heavy component as a pure product. The product recovery and the productivity are not high. In a moving-bed process, because of the counter-current solid-gas contact, the separation achieved is similar to that of the fractionation by distillation. Although the moving-bed operation offers the upper limit for the performance of a cyclic adsorptive process, due to mechanical complexities in the handling of solids the 'simulated' moving-bed is preferred. By moving the inlet and outlet ports of streams located along the length of the bed, a moving-bed process can be realized in a fixed bed. We describe here a 'moving-port' system which permits injection or withdrawal of the fluid along the axial direction in a fixed bed. A fixed bed embedded with the moving-port systems emulates a simulated moving-bed adsorber. The proposed adsorber can fractionate a binary gas mixture into two product streams with high purities. It is similar to the Sorbex process of UOP but does not have the eluent as an additional separating agent. A parametric study indicates that high purity products and a higher productivity by an order of magnitude can be achieved with simulated moving-beds compared to the fixed beds.     

Optimizing the separation of gaseous enantiomers by simulated moving bed and pressure swing adsorption

The resolution of racemic gas mixtures by simulated moving bed (SMB) and pressure swing adsorption (PSA) is investigated by dynamic simulation and optimization. Enantiomer separation of inhalation anesthetics is important because there is evidence that the purified enantiomers may have different pharmacological properties than the racemate. The model parameters reported in an experimental investigation performed elsewhere are used to study the feasibility of this separation using SMB and PSA configurations. Both processes were modeled in gPROMS^® as systems of differential algebraic equations. Operating conditions are optimized such that the feed throughput and product recovery for each process were maximized subject to equal constraints on the pressures and superficial gas velocities. SMB was found to be capable of resolving racemic feed mixtures with purity and recovery exceeding 99%. On the other hand, PSA was also able to provide a single purified enantiomer with low recovery of about 30% which may limit its application to enantiomer separation. Nevertheless, PSA consumes less desorbent, and achieves higher throughput at the sacrifice of lower recovery.     

Heuristics for synthesis and design of pressure-swing adsorption processes

Simulation based synthesis and design of adsorptive enrichment of CO from tail gas having 51?% CO are presented. The adsorption breakthrough curve simulation using this feed gas composition, helped to provide a starting guess of the adsorption step duration in a pressure-swing adsorption cycle for meeting the purity and recovery targets. Use of smaller bed dimensions facilitated the simulation of many cycles. These simulations helped to decide the operating pressure range, operating temperature, constituent steps of the cycle, their sequence, direction of pressurization of the bed, number of beds in the cycle and the composition of the streams to be used for pressurization and/or rinse and/or purge steps. Only an optimally designed pressure-vacuum-swing adsorption cycle achieves the stiff separation targets of getting an extract having 80?% pure CO at 80?% recovery in a single-stage with an adsorbent that uses physical adsorption and offers CO/CH₄ sorption selectivity of just 2.44. Additional simulations are done wherein the bed sizes and velocities are increased to predict the performance of a large-scale unit. These require deciding only the durations of the steps that are finalized from the small-scale unit simulations. These durations were kept fixed and the bed dimensions were varied till the separation targets are obtained for the particular feed rate. The scale-up criteria was matching residence times in the bed. A strategy for treating a feed gas having only 30?% CO is also discussed and a novel concept of cascaded PSA is evaluated using simulations. Some heuristics are evolved from the studies.     

Design of a H2 PSA for cogeneration of ultrapure hydrogen and power at an advanced integrated gasification combined cycle with pre-combustion capture

A novel hydrogen pressure swing adsorption system has been studied that is applied to an advanced integrated gasification combined cycle plant for cogenerating power and ultrapure hydrogen (99.99+ mol%) with CO₂ capture. In designing the H₂ PSA, it is essential to increase the recovery of ultrapure hydrogen product to its maximum since the power consumption for compressing the H₂ PSA tail gas up to the gas turbine operating pressure should be minimised to save the total auxiliary power consumption of the advanced IGCC plant. In this study, it is sought to increase the H₂ recovery by increasing the complexity of the PSA step configuration that enables a PSA cycle to have a lower feed flow to one column for adsorption and more pressure equalisation steps. As a result the H₂ recovery reaches a maximum around 93 % with a Polybed H₂ PSA system having twelve columns and the step configuration contains simultaneous adsorption at three columns and four-stage pressure equalisation.     

Kinetic Separation of Oxygen and Argon Using Molecular Sieve Carbon

A pressure-swing adsorption (PSA) simulation study was performed for the separation of a mixture of 95% O₂ and 5% Ar using a molecular sieve carbon (MSC) as the adsorbent. Two PSA cycles have been outlined to maximize the recovery of either argon or oxygen as a high purity product. The effect of cycle parameters such as cocurrent depressurization pressure, purge/feed ratio, pressure ratio and adsorption pressure on the separation of O₂/Ar has been studied. It was found that it is feasible to obtain an argon product of purity in excess of 80% with reasonably high recovery using one of the cycles. The other cycle is capable of producing high purity oxygen (>99%) at high recovery (>50%) with reasonably high product throughputs. The PSA process can be conducted at room temperature and hence has an advantage over conventional processes like cryogenic distillation and cryogenic adsorption.     

Pressure Swing Adsorption Technologies for Carbon Dioxide Capture

The principles of pressure swing adsorption (PSA) for carbon dioxide capture are reviewed. Previous work on PSA, relevant modeling and experimental investigation for specifically carbon dioxide separation are also presented and significant findings highlighted. Simple rules for PSA process design based on analysis of the inherent properties of adsorbate-adsorbent systems encompassing equilibrium isotherm, adsorption kinetics, shape of breakthrough curves, screening and selection of adsorbent, bed porosity, adsorption time, purge to feed ratio, residence time, pressure equalization and rinse steps are provided to promote better understanding of the technology so that it gains wider acceptance in the future to address the global environmental concern, particularly in the removal of carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas.     

Capture of CO2 from flue gas streams with zeolite 13X by vacuum-pressure swing adsorption

Vacuum swing adsorption (VSA) capture of CO₂ from flue gas streams is a promising technology for greenhouse gas mitigation. In this study we use a detailed, validated numerical model of the CO2VSA process to study the effect of a range of operating and design parameters on the system performance. The adsorbent used is 13X and a feed stream of 12% CO₂ and dry air is used to mimic flue gas. Feed pressures of 1.2 bar are used to minimize flue gas compression. A 9-step cycle with two equalisations and a 12-step cycle including product purge were both used to understand the impact of several cycle changes on performance. The ultimate vacuum level used is one of the most important parameters in dictating CO₂ purity, recovery and power consumption. For vacuum levels of 4 kPa and lower, CO₂ purities of >90% are achievable with a recovery of greater than 70%. Both purity and recovery drop quickly as the vacuum level is raised to 10 kPa. Total power consumption decreases as the vacuum pressure is raised, as expected, but the recovery decreases even quicker leading to a net increase in the specific power. The specific power appears to minimize at a vacuum pressure of approximately 4 kPa for the operating conditions used in our study. In addition to the ultimate vacuum level, vacuum time and feed time are found to impact the results for differing reasons. Longer evacuation times (to the same pressure level) imply lower flow rates and less pressure drop providing improved performance. Longer feed times led to partial breakthrough of the CO₂ front and reduced recovery but improved purity. The starting pressure of evacuation (which is not necessarily equal to the feed pressure) was also found to be important since the gas phase was enriched in CO₂ prior to removal by vacuum leading to improved CO₂ purity. A 12-step cycle including product purge was able to produce high purity CO₂ (>95%) with minimal impact on recovery. Finally, it was found that for 13X, the optimal feed temperature was around 67°C to maximize system purity. This is a consequence of the temperature dependence of the working selectivity and working capacity of 13X. In summary, our numerical model indicates that there is considerable scope for improvement and use of the VSA process for CO₂ capture from flue gas streams.     

Pressure-Swing Adsorption Using Layered Adsorbent Beds with Different Adsorption Properties: I—Results of Process Simulation

A simulation study was conducted on layered-bed pressure-swing adsorption, PSA, processes with adsorbents that differ in their adsorption properties. As an example, an oxygen, O₂, vacuum-swing adsorption, VSA, process was analyzed to investigate relationships between process performance and adsorption properties of the adsorbents used. For two adsorbents with identical nitrogen-to-oxygen, N₂/O₂, selectivity but different N₂ and O₂ capacities, placing the high-capacity adsorbent at the product end and the low-capacity adsorbent at the feed end of the adsorption bed gives a better performance than the case of reversing layering of these adsorbents. However, for two adsorbents with different values of N₂/O₂ selectivity but identical N₂ capacity, changing the bed-layer configuration does not show a significant difference in O₂-VSA performance. The advantages of layering a high-capacity adsorbent on product end of the bed are demonstrated by an examination of the N₂-loading difference in a VSA cycle. The modeling study also reveals an effect of cycle features (e.g., equalization step) on the effectiveness of using layered-bed configurations in VSA/PSA processes. It suggests that layering appropriately two adsorbents with different adsorption properties could result in better VSA/PSA-process performance than using a single-layer bed with either of the two adsorbents.     

Partial-discard strategy for obtaining high purity products using simulated moving bed chromatography

A new "partial-discard" operation strategy was developed to improve the performance, especially purity, achievable in simulated moving bed (SMB) chromatography. This strategy was applied to the four-zone SMB process with two columns per zone for binary separation within the linear range. The "partial-discard" strategy significantly enhanced the purity or enrichment when the discard time and discard length were controlled. In addition, the "partial-feed with partial-discard" strategy improved remarkably the extract and raffinate purities at an intermediate feed time compared with the "partial-feed" operation. Adjustments of the discard length and discard time played key roles in achieving the desired product purity in SMB chromatographic performance.     

A non-linear equilibrium analysis of blowdown policy in pressure—swing—adsorption separation

Using the local non-linear equilibrium approach, we investigated pressure—swing—adsorption (PSA) cycles directed toward the removal of an adsorbable impurity present in large amounts in an inert substance. Three blowdown policies are compared (the blowdown is the part of the PSA cycle in which the pressure of a column is released by rejecting gas). In one such policy, the gas resulting from blowdown is rich in the impurity and is rejected as waste. In a second policy in contrast, the production is adjusted so that the blowdown gas is pure and is considered as a product or is reused to recompress or purge another column. The third policy is intermediate, in the sense that part of the blowdown gas is pure and recovered, and part is impure and rejected.The equilibrium approach presented neglects mass-transfer and dispersion effects, but accounts for non-linear equilibria and variations in gas velocity. It thus allows analytical or semi-analytical expressions to be obtained for quantities such as the inert recovery ratio, and hence an easy qualitative discussion of the effects of operating parameters on the recovery. It is shown that the intermediate policy (partial recovery of the blowdown gas) is optimal. The adsorption of methane and ethane on activated carbon from helium or hydrogen are presented as illustrations.     

Pressure-Swing Adsorption Using Layered Adsorbent Beds with Different Adsorption Properties: II—Experimental Investigation

An experimental study was conducted on a layered-bed pressure-vacuum-swing adsorption, PVSA, process with adsorbents that differ in their adsorption properties. An oxygen, O₂, PVSA process was employed as an example for investigating how the process performance is affected by bed-layering configuration under different operating conditions for specific purge, product purity, and cycle feature. For two adsorbents with similar nitrogen-to-oxygen, N₂/O₂, selectivity but different N₂ and O₂ capacities, placing the high-capacity adsorbent at the product end and the low-capacity adsorbent at the feed end of the adsorption bed results in a better performance than in the case of reversing the layer positions of those adsorbents. The benefit of placing the adsorbent with higher capacity at the product end becomes more significant at high O₂ product-purity levels. The experimental data obtained in this investigation agree well with simulation results reported earlier.     

Fractional factorial design study of a pressure swing adsorption-solvent vapor recovery process

A two-level fractional factorial study was performed by computer simulation on the periodic state process performance of a pressure swing adsorption-solvent vapor recovery process (PSA-SVR). The goal was to investigate factor (parameter) interaction effects on the process performance, i.e., interaction effects that cannot be ascertained from the conventional “one-at-a-time” approach. Effects of seven factors, i.e., the purge to feed ratio, pressure level, pressure ratio, heat transfer coefficient, feed concentration, feed volumetric flow rate and bed length to diameter ratio, on the process performance were investigated. The results were judged in terms of the light product purity, heavy product enrichment (and relative enrichment) and recovery, and bed capacity factor. Only the purge to feed ratio, pressure ratio, and feed concentration had significant effects on the benzene vapor enrichment (and relative enrichment); and no two-factor and higher interactions were observed. The light product purity was affected by all seven factors; and the relative importance of the effect of each factor depended on the levels of the other factors, i.e., significant two-factor interaction effects existed. Two-factor interaction effects also existed on the benzene vapor recovery, although the effects of all seven factors and their interactions were relatively small. The bed capacity factor was affected mainly by the purge to feed ratio, the heat transfer coefficient and the feed concentration; two factor and higher order interaction effects were insignificant. Overall, this study demonstrated the utility of fractional factorial design for revealing factor interactions and their effects on the performance of a PSA-SVR process.     

Performance of a Two-Bed Pressure Swing Adsorption Process with Incomplete Pressure Equalization

Incomplete pressure equalization (PE) is practiced in a commercial oxygen concentrator for medical use by adopting simultaneous PE and feed-pressurization for pressurizing an adsorption bed. In such a cycle configuration, extent of equalization during PE affects process performance. In order to assess the effect, performance of pressure swing adsorption (PSA) process with incomplete PE was determined by both simulations and experiments. In simulations, an equilibrium model was used with the assumptions of multicomponent Langmuir isotherms, isothermal operation, and no pressure drop through a bed. The required parameters for simulations were measured in separate experiments. PSA experiments were performed for a two-bed cycle with PE. Two kinds of pressurization, feed and product, were examined. Effects of purge amount and extent of equalization on process performance were assessed in view of productivity and light-component recovery. From the obtained results performance contours were constructed. 95 oxygen mole percent production from air with zeolite 13× was considered as a case study. In both pressurizations, an optimal specific purge and an extent of equalization for the productivity and recovery were observed, but with a different level of equalization. For a maximum productivity feed-pressurization favored incomplete PE, while a maximum recovery occurred at complete PE for both pressurizations. The simulations depicted well existence of optimum conditions, though they showed quantitative disagreement with experiments.     

Fixed-bed adsorption of carbon dioxide/methane mixtures on silicalite pellets

The adsorption of carbon dioxide and methane on silicalite pellets packed on a fixed bed has been studied. Equilibrium and kinetic measurements of the adsorption of carbon dioxide and methane have been performed, and a binary adsorption isotherm for carbon dioxide/methane mixtures has been obtained. A model based on the LDF approximation for the mass transfer has been used to describe the breakthrough curves obtained experimentally. A PSA cycle has been proposed for obtaining methane with purity higher than 98% from carbon dioxide/methane mixtures containing 38% and 50% methane, and its performance has been simulated using the proposed model. The simulation results show that silicalite can be a suitable adsorbent for employment in a PSA separation process for carbon dioxide removal from coalseam and landfill gases.     

Heavy reflux PSA cycles for CO2 recovery from flue gas: Part I. Performance evaluation

This study evaluated nine stripping PSA cycle configurations, all with a heavy reflux (HR) step, some with a light reflux (LR) step, and some with a recovery (REC) or feed plus recycle (F+R) step, for concentrating CO₂ from stack and flue gas at high temperature (575 K) using a K-promoted HTlc. Under the process conditions studied, the addition of the LR step always resulted in a better process performance; and in all cases, the addition of a REC or F+R step surprisingly did not affect the process performance except at low feed throughputs, where either cycle step resulted in a similar diminished performance. The best cycle based on overall performance was a 5-bed 5-step stripping PSA cycle with LR and HR from countercurrent depressurization (CnD) (98.7% CO₂ purity, 98.7% CO₂ recovery and 5.8 L STP/hr/kg feed throughput). The next best cycle was a 5-bed 5-step stripping PSA cycle with LR and HR from LR purge (96.5% CO₂ purity, 71.1% CO₂ recovery and 57.6 L STP/hr/kg feed throughput). These improved performances were caused mainly by the use of a very small purge to feed ratio (γ=0.02) for the former cycle and a larger one (γ=0.50) for the latter cycle. The former cycle was good for producing CO₂ at high purities and recoveries but at lower feed throughputs, and the latter cycle was useful for obtaining CO₂ at high purities and feed throughputs but at lower recoveries. The best performance of a 4-bed 4-step stripping PSA cycle with HR from CnD was disappointing because of low CO₂ recoveries (99.2% CO₂ purity, 15.2% CO₂ recovery and 72.0 L STP/hr/kg feed throughput). This last result revealed that the recoveries of this cycle would always be much lower than the corresponding cycles with a LR step, no matter the process conditions, and that the LR step was very important to the performance of these HR cycles for this application and process conditions studied.     

Simulation of pressure swing adsorption modules having laminated structure

A mathematical model was formulated for the bulk separation of binary gas mixtures in micro-structured pressure swing adsorption (PSA) modules consisting of parallel channels lined with adsorbent. Axial and radial dispersion in the gas phase and mass transfer resistance in the adsorbent phase were taken into consideration. The partial differential equations governing the concentration profiles in the gas and adsorbent phases were solved by orthogonal collocation. The model enabled the prediction of the concentration profiles in both the gas and adsorbent phases (as a function of location and time), the product purity and the separation efficiency. The effects of model parameters and operating conditions on the module performance were investigated. Simulation of oxygen enrichment from air by molecular sieve 13X indicated that long modules with thin layers of adsorbent, narrow gas flow channel heights and large numbers of flow channels give the best separation.