Pressure Swing Adsorption Technology Research Articles

A comprehensive review on biomethane production from biogas separation and its techno-economic assessments.

Biogas offers significant benefits as a renewable energy source, contributing to decarbonization, waste management, and economic development. This comprehensive review examines the historical, technological, economic, and global aspects of biomethane production, focusing on the key players such as China, the European Union, and North America, and associated opportunities and challenges as well as future prospects from an Australia perspective. The review begins with an introduction to biogas, detailing its composition, feedstock sources, historical development, and anaerobic digestion (AD) process. Subsequently, it delves into major biomethane production technologies, including physicochemical absorption, high-pressure water scrubbing (HPWS), amine scrubbing (AS), pressure swing adsorption (PSA), membrane permeation/separation (MP), and other technologies including organic solvent scrubbing and cryogenic separation. The study also discusses general guidelines of techno-economic assessments (TEAs) regarding biomethane production, outlining the methodologies, inventory analysis, environmental life cycle assessment (LCA), and estimated production costs. Challenges and opportunities of biogas utilization in Australia are explored, highlighting and referencing global projections, polarization in production approaches, circularity in waste management, and specific considerations for Australia. The review concludes discussing future perspectives for biomethane, emphasizing the importance of technological advancements, policy support, and investment in realizing its full potential for sustainable energy and waste management solutions.

Pengembangan Konsentrator Oksigen Berbasis Empat Bahan Filtrasi Sebagai Solusi Inovatif Alat Bantu Pernafasan

Amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a significant increase in the demand for oxygen. More people require oxygen cylinders, yet the supply is insufficient to meet the community's needs. Oxygen Concentrators have become an essential device capable of producing pure oxygen with a purity level reaching 95% through the application of Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) technology. The resulting ratio produced by the concentrator is 33.4% for synthetic zeolite, 30% for silica gel, 20% for natural zeolite, and 26.7% for activated carbon.

Multi-objective optimization of breakthrough times for hydrogen purification through layered bed pressure swing adsorption based on genetic algorithm and artificial neural network model

Hydrogen purification from steam methane reforming (SMR) by pressure swing adsorption (PSA) technology is a common method to obtain high-purity hydrogen. The breakthrough time can well reflect the adsorption dynamics and help PSA cycle design. In order to avoid time-consuming and labor-intensive breakthrough curve experiments, it is very necessary to develop a fast and accurate surrogate model. In this study, a genetic algorithm (GA) and artificial neural network (ANN) are combined to predict and optimize breakthrough times of adsorbates in activated carbon/zeolite layered beds. Using the Latin hypercube sampling strategy, training data sets of GA-optimized ANN (GA-ANN) obtains from the physical model of adsorption, heat and mass transfer model. The genetic algorithm (GA) optimizes the weights and biases of ANN for better performance. The ANN topology has 4 input variables (superficial velocity, activated carbon height, adsorption pressure and feed temperature) and 3 output variables (breakthrough times of CH4, CO and CO2). The number of neurons in the hidden layer for the GA-ANN model was optimized as 7 to predict and optimize the maximum breakthrough time of SMR with a four-component (H2/CH4/CO/CO2) system. The sensitivity analysis displays that relative importance to the breakthrough time is in the order of superficial velocity (40.88%) > adsorption pressure (24.55%) > activated carbon height (21.04%) > feed temperature (13.53%). To obtain high-purity hydrogen, the GA-ANN model combined with multi-objective GA optimization is used to maximize the breakthrough times of CH4 and CO. The GA-ANN surrogate model proposed in this paper can not only accurately and quickly achieve the purpose of predicting the system breakthrough time with a high correlation coefficient (R = 0.9937) but also obtains the optimal operating conditions of PSA hydrogen purification.

Comprehensive performance and numerical analysis of pressure swing adsorption process-based medical oxygen concentrators under various operating conditions

ABSTRACT One common application of pressure swing adsorption technology is medical oxygen concentrator (MOC) which directly produces ~ 94% O2 from air. The operating condition determines the separation efficiency of MOC and is varied with practical requirements. A better understanding of performance, mass and heat transfer inside adsorption bed at wide operating conditions is of great importance. The impacts of key operating parameters on the performances, the concentration and temperature distributions of MOC have been numerically investigated. The numerical results demonstrate that high comprehensive performances are achieved at an optimal condition with combination of adsorption pressure, product and feed flowrate and feed temperature. As adsorption pressure increases, the front of gas concentration and temperature becomes sharp, which effectively benefits for improving the performance. It is nearly identical shapes of nitrogen concentration and gas temperature profiles after adsorption and the profiles are pushed forward near production end with increasing of product flowrates and decreasing of feed flowrates. The increasing of feed temperature is beneficial to improve the performance. However, the adverse mass transfer and thermal effects are dominant at very high pressures, flowrates and temperatures conditions and this variation increases the unit power of MOC.

Small-scale medical oxygen production unit using PSA technology: modeling and sensitivity analysis

This study presents a solid approach for small-scale medical oxygen production unit using pressure swing adsorption (PSA) technology. The objective of this research is to develop a mathematical model and conduct a sensitivity analysis to optimise the design and operating parameters of the PSA system. Based on the simulation results, an optimal set of operational parameter values has been obtained for the PSA beds. The result shows that the binary system produced oxygen with a purity of 94%, at the adsorption pressure 1 bar and temperature of 308K. The findings demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed small-scale PSA system for medical oxygen production, highlighting the impact of key parameters and emphasising the need for careful optimisation. The findings serve as a guide for the design and operation of small-scale PSA systems, enabling healthcare facilities to produce their own medical oxygen, thereby improving accessibility and addressing critical shortages during emergencies. Future research may explore the integration of large scale PSA units in hospitals in Morocco.

Waste to wheels: Performance comparison between pressure swing adsorption and amine-absorption technologies for upgrading biogas containing hydrogen sulfide to fuel grade standards

Waste to wheels: Performance comparison between pressure swing adsorption and amine-absorption technologies for upgrading biogas containing hydrogen sulfide to fuel grade standards

Simulation of working process of oxygen concentrator equipment by pressure swing adsorption

Oxygen is essential for human respiration and the existence of all living organisms. Medically it is used to treat diseases related to impaired respiratory function. In industrial scale, gaseous oxygen is separated from the air by liquefaction and fractional distillation techniques, while on a small and medium scale oxygen is usually separated by using zeolite molecular sieves and pressure swing adsorption (PSA) technology. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the demand for oxygen concentrators (PSA type) for personal and family use is very high. However, there isn’t any Vietnamese factory for production oxygen concentrator, so it is imported from abroad. In this paper, a pilot-scale oxygen concentrator was built at the Department of chemical process equipment, Hanoi University of Science and Technology. The operation of the device has been simulated and optimized on Aspen Adsorption software. The optimization parameters obtained will be used to design the equipment in industrial scale.

Pillared Clays as Cost-Effective Adsorbents for Carbon Capture by Pressure Swing Adsorption Processes in the Cement Industry

CO2 adsorption technology is gaining so much attention as a viable technique to mitigate the greenhouse effect. Having the appropriate adsorbent coupled with an optimized process design is the key issue toward its further development and wide industrialization. In the current work, we research two types of pillared clays, namely, aluminum oxide (Al-PILC) and zirconium oxide (Zr-PILC) applied in the pressure swing adsorption (PSA) technology for carbon dioxide capture in the cement industry. A comparison with the benchmark, zeolite 13X, is made. The first process analyzed is a two-stage system consisted of two beds, each stage operating in the Skarstrom cycle, where a techno-economic analysis is performed, including capital and operational costs. The Zr-PILC demonstrated the best performance with a purity of 76.6% and recovery of 72.1% in the first process design. The total annualized cost of CO2 for such a system is 25.71 €/ton avoided. Then, a six-bed system operating in a 6-1-4 adsorption cycle and a total of 18 steps is implemented. The best candidate Zr-PILC of the first process design is chosen as the adsorbent of the second design. The six-bed-PSA process has an annualized CO2 cost of 19.17 €/ton with a 78% of purity and 71.3% of CO2 recovery.

Active Fault-Tolerant Control Applied to a Pressure Swing Adsorption Process for the Production of Bio-Hydrogen

Pressure swing adsorption (PSA) technology is used in various applications. PSA is a cost-effective process with the ability to produce high-purity bio-hydrogen (99.99%) with high recovery rates. In this article, a PSA process for the production of bio-hydrogen is proposed; it uses two columns packed with type 5A zeolite, and it has a four-step configuration (adsorption, depressurization, purge, and repressurization) for bio-hydrogen production and regeneration of the beds. The aim of this work is to design and use an active fault-tolerant control (FTC) controller to raise and maintain a stable purity of 0.9999 in molar fraction (99.99%), even with the occurrence of actuator faults. To validate the robustness and performance of the proposed discrete FTC, it has been compared with a discrete PID (proportional–integral–derivative) controller in the presence of actuator faults and trajectory changes. Both controllers achieve to maintain stable purity by reducing the effect of faults; however, the discrete PID controller is not robust to multiple faults since the desired purity is lost and fails to meet international standards to be used as bio-fuel. On the other hand, the FTC scheme reduces the effects of individual and multiple faults by striving to maintain a purity of 0.9999 in molar fraction and complying with international standards to be used as bio-fuel.

Cost efficient oxygen concentrator with PSA technology

Normally atmospheric air contains mixture of gases like nitrogen (78%), oxygen (21%), and small amount of lot of other gases like carbon-di-oxide (0.03%), hydrogen. Oxygen concentrator is a device that concentrate (or) separate oxygen from ambient air by specifically removing nitrogen by process of Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA). Pressure Swing Adsorption is a technique that separate oxygen from a mixture of gases depending on pressure to which molecular characteristics and affinity for a zeolite (Natrolite). The proposed output of Oxygen concentrator with Pressure Swing Adsorption technology is economical and high-efficient. The experimental results of the proposed system supplied the oxygen at the purity of about 94.7% for the low velocities of 0.5-3 L/min. It is concluded that the system provides a good performance when considered that a patient with the COPD should take the oxygen at the purity of 90% or more for the low velocities of 0.5-3 L/min. On comparing with other oxygen concentrator available in the market, this proposed system is highly cost effective and comparatively lesser in weight. As per the experiments conducted using the proposed system provides comparatively less noise and works efficiently for long time and oxygen purity is also high. Since, this proposed system has these many features. This is so much helpful for peoples who can’t able to afford market available oxygen concentrator.

Out of breath in pandemic - Is pressure swing adsorption (PSA) technology a solution for saving lives?

In these unprecedented times of COVID-19 pandemic, globally there has been a shortage of medical supplies, hospital beds, health care workers, etc. This was accentuated in India with a shortage of oxygen in the second wave of pandemic. The reasons for shortage were mainly imbalance between demand-supply and these also led to implementation of ingenious solutions in the form of oxygen generators based on PSA technology. The technology was an off shot from OBOGS developed by DRDO and DEBEL for light combat military air crafts. This review discusses the scientific technology behind medical oxygen plants based on PSA, its applications and its advantages to combat the dearth of oxygen.

Hydrogen production from coke oven gas using pressure swing adsorption process − a mathematical modelling approach

Coal is playing a major role as a reductant and as an energy source in the present world steel production due to its low cost and widespread distribution around the world. At the same time, being the largest contributor to global CO2 emissions, coal faces significant environmental challenges in terms of air pollution and global warming. Hydrogen is a promising alternative for coal in lowering the steel industry’s CO2 footprint, but the availability of green hydrogen is currently limited by its high production cost. This research study focuses on developing a pressure swing adsorption (PSA) technology that will allow for continued use of coal for a smooth transition towards green hydrogen-based steel production, by better utilisation of its by-product coke oven gas to produce high purity hydrogen. A generic, fast and robust simulation tool for simulating a variety of PSA processes considering both equilibrium and kinetic effects using a detailed non-isothermal and non-isobaric model is developed in the study. The adsorption equilibrium data required for the model are calculated from experimental results using the non-linear regression data fitting method. A series of rigorous parametric studies and breakthrough tests are performed using the developed mathematical model for better understanding of the effects of different factors on the PSA process performance. With the better understanding obtained from the above-mentioned parametric studies, the model is optimised by performing several simulation tests to achieve a high process performance in terms of purity and recovery of the H2 product, productivity of the adsorbents and energy consumption for compression of gases. The optimised 14-step multi-bed PSA cycle developed in this study allows for an improved energy efficiency of coal usage by better utilisation of its by-product coke oven gas by converting it into valuable high purity (>99.999%) hydrogen product with a recovery of over 75%.

Separation and purification of syngas-derived hydrogen: A comparative evaluation of membrane- and cryogenic-assisted approaches

Hydrogen (H2) separation and purification is challenging because of the high purity and recovery requirements in particular applications, as well as the critical properties of H2 and its associated components. Unlike pressure swing adsorption, cryogenic- and membrane-based technologies are currently employed for H2 separation. Membrane-assisted (case-I) and cryogenic-assisted (case-II) separation and purification of H2 were evaluated in this study in terms of the energy, exergy, and economic aspects of the processes. In case-I and case-II, H2 was first produced from synthesis gas via the water-gas shift reaction and was then separated from other components using membrane and cryogenic systems, respectively. Additionally, an organic Rankine cycle was integrated with the water-gas shift reactors to recover the waste heat. A well-known commercial process simulation software, Aspen Hysys® v11, was employed to simulate both processes. Energy analysis revealed that case-I has a lower energy consumption (0.50 kWh/kg) than case-II (2.01 kWh/kg). However, low H2 purity and recovery rates are the main limitations of case-I. In terms of exergy, the H2 separation section in case-I exhibited a higher efficiency (28.4%) than case-II (14.7%). Furthermore, the economic evaluation showed that case-I was more expensive ($17.7 M) than case-II ($10.2 M) because of the high cost of the compressors required. In conclusion, this study could assist industry practitioners and academic researchers in selecting optimal H2 separation and purification technologies for improving the overall H2 economy.

Insights on perovskite-type proton conductive membranes for hydrogen permeation

Hydrogen has received widespread attention because as its diverse delivery methods and no GHG emissions. The use of membrane separation can effectively replace the costly low-temperature distillation and pressure swing adsorption technology to achieve the purpose of low-cost hydrogen enrichment. As a promising hydrogen separation material, perovskite-type proton conductor hydrogen permeable membrane has been practically applied in hydrogen separation and purification process. In this paper, the principle of hydrogen permeability of perovskite-type proton conductor hydrogen permeable membrane is expounded, and its preparation method and application are summarized, and the development trend of the material is discussed.

Adsorbents selection for the enrichment of low-grade methane coal mine emissions by temperature and pressure swing adsorption technologies

This work evaluates the feasibility of common adsorbents (carbonaceous materials, zeolites and metal-organic frameworks) for the adsorption and further methane upgrading of the ventilation air methane (VAM) emissions from underground coal mining (0.57% CH4). Concentration was achieved by adsorption through two different operational procedures based on fixed bed configurations: temperature swing adsorption (TSA) and pressure swing adsorption (PSA). All the combinations have been simulated using a rigorous mathematical model implemented in a commercial simulation package. The main purpose is to evaluate the performance of the different combinations of adsorption technique and adsorbent material, as well as establishing a valid mathematical model able to test a wide range of materials. The comparison has been fulfilled with an economic evaluation of the different combinations. Results show that carbonaceous materials provide the highest concentration factors (C/C0 = 5), with low total methane recoveries (30%) and the lowest cost per kmol of methane recovered (1.5 €/kmol). MOFs can retain substantial amounts of methane, but with lower CH4/N2 selectivities than carbonaceous materials and lower methane concentration factors (C/C0 = 2.6). For this type of materials, a high recovery of methane is achieved, but at expense of the highest costs (80 €/kmol). Finally, zeolitic materials present the lowest methane concentration factor (C/C0 = 2), with intermediate both methane recoveries (58%) and costs (25 €/kmol). Concerning the adsorption technique, TSA has shown higher final methane concentrations for carbonaceous materials and some MOFs, whereas PSA overperforms for zeolitic materials. In addition, TSA is cheaper in all cases than PSA processes. On the other hand, PSA allows higher total methane recoveries and adsorption capacities for all materials, highlighting the high dependence on adsorption pressure, especially in carbonaceous materials (PSA/TSA = 18.3, in the case of Maxsorb).

Porous Adsorption Materials for Carbon Dioxide Capture in Industrial Flue Gas.

Due to the intensification of the greenhouse effect and the emphasis on the utilization of CO2 resources, the enrichment and separation of CO2 have become a current research focus in the environment and energy. Compared with other technologies, pressure swing adsorption has the advantages of low cost and high efficiency and has been widely used. The design and preparation of high-efficiency adsorbents is the core of the pressure swing adsorption technology. Therefore, high-performance porous CO2 adsorption materials have attracted increasing attention. Porous adsorption materials with high specific surface area, high CO2 adsorption capacity, low regeneration energy, good cycle performance, and moisture resistance have been focused on. This article summarizes the optimization of CO2 adsorption by porous adsorption materials and then applies them to the field of CO2 adsorption. The internal laws between the pore structure, surface chemistry, and CO2 adsorption performance of porous adsorbent materials are discussed. Further development requirements and research focus on porous adsorbent materials for CO2 treatment in industrial waste gas are prospected. The structural design of porous carbon adsorption materials is still the current research focus. With the requirements of applications and environmental conditions, the integrity, mechanical strength and water resistance of high-performance materials need to be met.

Renewable hydrogen production from the organic fraction of municipal solid waste through a novel carbon-negative process concept

Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) is one of the prevailing negative carbon emission technologies. Ensuring a hydrogen economy is essential to achieving the carbon-neutral goal. In this regard, the present study contributed by proposing a carbon negative process for producing high purity hydrogen from the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW). This integrated process comprises anaerobic digestion, pyrolysis, catalytic reforming, water-gas shift, and pressure swing adsorption technologies. By focusing on Sweden, the proposed process was developed and evaluated through sensitivity analysis, mass and energy balance calculations, techno-economic assessment, and practical feasibility analysis. By employing the optimum operating conditions from the sensitivity analysis, 72.2 kg H2 and 701.47 kg negative CO2 equivalent emissions were obtained by treating 1 ton of dry OFMSW. To achieve these results, 6621.4 MJ electricity and 325 kg of steam were utilized during this process. Based on this techno-economic assessment of implementing the proposed process in Stockholm, when the negative CO2 equivalent emissions are recognized as income, the internal rate of return and the discounted payback period can be obtained as 26% and 4.3 years, respectively. Otherwise, these values will be 13% and 7.2 years.

Hydrogen Recovery from Coke Oven Gas. Comparative Analysis of Technical Alternatives.

The recovery of energy and valuable compounds from exhaust gases in the iron and steel industry deserves special attention due to the large power consumption and CO2 emissions of the sector. In this sense, the hydrogen content of coke oven gas (COG) has positioned it as a promising source toward a hydrogen-based economy which could lead to economic and environmental benefits in the iron and steel industry. COG is presently used for heating purposes in coke batteries or furnaces, while in high production rate periods, surplus COG is burnt in flares and discharged into the atmosphere. Thus, the recovery of the valuable compounds of surplus COG, with a special focus on hydrogen, will increase the efficiency in the iron and steel industry compared to the conventional thermal use of COG. Different routes have been explored for the recovery of hydrogen from COG so far: i) separation/purification processes with pressure swing adsorption or membrane technology, ii) conversion routes that provide additional hydrogen from the chemical transformation of the methane contained in COG, and iii) direct use of COG as fuel for internal combustion engines or gas turbines with the aim of power generation. In this study, the strengths and bottlenecks of the main hydrogen recovery routes from COG are reviewed and discussed.

Quadrupolar Interaction with Zeolite and Pressure Swing Adsorption in Portable Medical Oxygen Concentrators for Breathing of Covid-19 and COPD Patients

Pressure swing adsorption (PSA) technology is used in medical oxygen concentrators for selective adsorption of nitrogen under pressure from air to produce oxygen-enriched air for breathing. The functional material in oxygen concentrators is aluminosilicate zeolite like Li-13X, 5A (LTA) with a relatively high Al-content. It selectively adsorbs nitrogen from the air into their molecular sieves due to the strong quadrupolar interaction between the adsorbed nitrogen and the electrical field of the charge balancing non-framework exchangeable cations of aluminosilicate zeolites. In an oxygen concentrator, two adsorbent vessels packed with the zeolite working alternately in a cyclic process are used for a near-continuous production of the oxygen-enriched air.

Comparison Between Pressure Swing Adsorption and Liquid Oxygen Enrichment Techniques in the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array Facility at the Chajnantor Plateau (5,050 m).

The Chilean workforce has over 200,000 people that are intermittently exposed to altitudes over 4,000 m. In 2012, the Ministry of Health provided a technical guide for high-altitude workers that included a series of actions to mitigate the effects of hypoxia. Previous studies have shown the positive effect of oxygen enrichment at high altitudes. The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) radiotelescope operates at 5,050 m [Array Operations Site (AOS)] and is the only place in the world where pressure swing adsorption (PSA) and liquid oxygen technologies have been installed at a large scale. These technologies reduce the equivalent altitude by increasing oxygen availability. This study aims to perform a retrospective comparison between the use of both technologies during operation in ALMA at 5,050 m. In each condition, variables such as oxygen (O2), temperature, and humidity were continuously recorded in each AOS rooms, and cardiorespiratory variables were registered. In addition, we compared portable O2 by using continuous or demand flow during outdoor activities at very high altitudes. The outcomes showed no differences between production procedures (PSA or liquid oxygen) in regulating oxygen availability at AOS facilities. As a result, big-scale installations have difficulties reaching the appropriate O2 concentration due to leaks in high mobility areas. In addition, the PSA plant requires adequacy and maintenance to operate at a very high altitude. A continuous flow of 2–3 l/min of portable O2 is recommended at 5,050 m.