Oxygen Separation from Air by Four-Bed Pressure Swing Adsorption

A study on a four-bed seven-step pressure swing adsorption (PSA) using zeolite 5A was performed experimentally and theoretically for separation of oxygen from air. In this process the steps of feed pressurization, production, blowdown, purge, pressure equalization (two steps), and product pressurization, are included in a cycle. The effects of various operating parameters such as adsorption pressure, cycle time, production rate, and purge rate on the product purity and recovery were investigated experimentally. Oxygen purity and recovery both increase when adsorption pressure increases. For most of the experiments at the highest purge rate, a higher purity of oxygen is obtained, but the recovery of oxygen is reduced. Oxygen recovery increases as production rate increases while the purge flow rate remains constant. It was observed that increasing the cycle time increases the performance of the process. An equilibrium based isothermal model in conjunction with an LDF (linear driving force) approximation was employed to simulate process performance. Comparison of the results obtained from the experiments and simulation results shows reasonable agreement.