Electric swing process

The authors provide selection criteria, by which the suitability of a process for a distributed production can be assessed [139]. These are explicitly given for the categories of feedstock, processes, customer products, and waste products. This is completed by a list of suitable device types for distributed production such as plate heat exchangers, pressure and temperature swing units, electrostatic dispersers, and membrane units. The various operations often rely on the use of electricity and therefore are said to be particularly suited for operation at the mini scale. 

The term parametric pumping was coined by Wilhelm et al. [Wilhelm, Rice, and Bendelius, Ind. Eng. Chem. Fundam., 5,141-144 (1966)] to describe a liquid-phase adsorption process in which separation is achieved by periodically reversing not only flow but also an intensive thermodynamic property such as temperature, which influences adsorptivity. Moreover, they considered the concurrent cycling of pressure, pH, and electrical and magnetic fields. A lot of research and development has been conducted on thermal, pressure, and pH driven cycles, but to date only gas-phase pressure-swing parametric pumping has found much commercial acceptance. 

In order to investigate the process aspects of the pressure swing separation of CH4 and N2 the apparatus depicted in Figure 7 was constructed. Valves VI through V5 are fitted with electric switching mechanisms that are interfaced to the MINC computer. 

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