(186j) Scale up Design Optimization of Pressure Swing Adsorption Processes for Gas Separation

The scale up design technology of pressure swing adsorption (PSA) processes for gas separation is introduced. The technology includes the optimization method (Ko et al., 2005) of PSA processes at cyclic steady state (CSS) and the mathematical model equations (Ko, 2016a). A four-bed twelve operating step PSA process were adopted and the optimal size of the adsorption bed (the inside diameter and packing bed length) and operating conditions (adsorption pressure, desorption pressure, adsorption step time, etc) were conveniently determined using the technology. Also, the trends of purity and recovery of the purified product gas were investigated depending on the design and operating conditions, and the design optimization results up to a large commercial size were verified very well by comparing with the design data of a PSA vendor company in Korea (Ko, 2016b). Finally, a simple and convenient rule of thumb for the scale up bed sizing is also suggested.