Comparison between MOF UTSA-16 and BPL activated carbon in hydrogen purification by PSA

The aim of this work is to study the application of Metal-Organic Framework (MOF) UTSA-16 in hydrogen purification PSA processes since UTSA-16 can adsorb/desorb CO, CH4 and specially CO2 (typical impurities of a SMR off-gas). PSA experiments (Skarstrom type PSA cycles) for hydrogen purification from a typical SMR off-gas mixture (CH4, CO and CO2 as impurities) were carried out using two adsorbents: MOF UTSA-16 and BPL activated carbon (BPL AC). A simulation tool developed at the University Complutense of Madrid, PSASIM (R), has been used to simulate the experimental PSA cycles. The model has been validated by reproducing the experimental results. Finally, a PSA cycle with operating conditions of hydrogen purification processes Tomita et al. (1987) has been simulated with PSASIM (R) with layered beds, containing UTSA-16/Zeolite 5A and BPL AC/Zeolite 5A. The results obtained from the simulations showed that BPL AC performs better results than UTSA-16 in terms of hydrogen purity and hydrogen recovery.