Parametric studies and simulation of PSA process for oxygen production from air

A numerical simulation and parametric studies for the separation of air using 5A zeolite for the production of oxygen are presented for a basic two bed pressure swing adsorption (PSA) process. The simulation is based on an in-house program ‘PSASOL’ developed in MATLABR. The transient process of PSA has been described by a set of partial differential equations, which were solved using a finite difference method. Simulation results have been validated with the experimental data from literature.

Based on the simulation results, an optimal set of operational parameter values has been obtained for the PSA bed. The values of the optimal parameters, viz. adsorption pressure, cycle time, feed rate, and product rate have been found to be 2.5 atm, 150 s, 15 cm³/s, and 2.55 cm³/s, respectively. For the optimal conditions, purity of 95.45% and recovery of 77.3% have been achieved. It has also been found that a longer tubular unit with the length to diameter (L/D) ratio of 10.5 is advantageous. The estimated pressure drop across the bed has been found to be negligible. Power consumption and productivity have also been computed.