Pressure-swing adsorption oxygen separation

Separation of a gas from the gas mixture is a key issue in the various industrial fields hydrogen recovery in petroleum refinery process, oxygen removal to prevent flame, air dehumidification to prevent moisture absorption, dehydration of fine chemical products, for example. Although there are various methods to perform gas separation [membrane separation, pressure swing adsorption (PSA) separation, cryogenic separation], the method using membranes attracts much attention. 

Pressure swing adsorption (PSA) processes are widely applied industrially for gas separations. Applications are numerous and include hydrogen and helium recovery and purification, air drying, the production of oxygen from air, and the separation of normal paraffins from isoparaffins. 

Oxygen can be supplied from an air separation plant, as well as from the cost-effective pressure swing adsorption (PSA) process. The Vinnolit oxychlorination process is also able to handle ethylene and/or anhydrous HCI containing vent streams from direct chlorination, acetaldehyde, monochloroacetic acid and other processes. 

Carbon molecular sieve (CMS) is useful in air separation processes because of its ability to selectively discriminate on the basis of molecular size and hence adsorb the smaller oxygen molecule over nitrogen. The difference in the adsorption kinetics of various gases allows the separation of gas mixtures into pure components using pressure swing adsorption (PSA). 

SEPARATION OF OXYGEN-ARGON MIXTURE BY PRESSURE SWING ADSORPTION... 

The larger the selectivity, the easier the separation of component i from component j by adsorption. Zeolites with a selectivity as high as 10 for nitrogen relative to oxygen are used in pressure-swing adsorption processes" to produce oxygen from air. The specific amount of each component adsorbed for an ideal solution is given by... 

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