Oxygen Production by Pressure Swing Adsorption

Abstract

The specific oxygen production capacity and the oxygen recovery of a pressure swing adsorption (PSA) process for the production of oxygen from ambient air by selective adsorption of nitrogen can be increased by operating the process at a superambient temperature. The higher temperature operation provides more efficient desorption of nitrogen from the adsorbent which more than off-sets the detrimental effects of the lower selectivity and capacity of adsorption of nitrogen from air at the elevated temperature. The concept is demonstrated by evaluating the performance of an eight-step PSA-oxygen process to produce a 90% oxygen product stream at different temperatures. It is shown that 10% higher oxygen production capacity and 14.5% larger oxygen recovery can be obtained by operating the PSA process at 60°C compared to its performance at 30°C. The PSA process and its performance data from a pilot plant are discussed.