INFLUENCE GRAIN SIZE OF THE ADSORBENT ON PRESSURE SWING ADSORPTION

Abstract

Pressure swing adsorption (PSA) is widely used for extracting the necessary components fo gas mixtures, such as oxygen or nitrogen from the air. Methods for accurately calculating PSA-units are extremely complex because of the unsteady processes in the switching absorbers. Therefore, a high value is the results of theoretical generalization of these processes using the proposed and justified in the paper of the size criterion. The criterion measures the depth of sorbate penetration in the adsorbent. It is shown how to use this criterion in the preliminary calculations of PSA-units for the production of oxygen from the air. It is concluded that for the effective operation of the oxygen PSA-units the characteristic size of grains of the adsorbent must be less than the depth of nitrogen penetration as an absorbed component.