Experimental Performance of Pilot-oxygen-pressure Swing Adsorption Unit

The effect of product purity on product flowrate, oxygen recovery, adsorbent productivity, and specific energy demand was investigated for the adsorption pressure of 5.5 bar (g). The experiments were carried out for zeolite molecular sieve UOP MOLSIV™ PSAO2 XP (UOP LLC, Honeywell) with N2/O2 enhanced selectivity in the pilot-plant adsorption unit using two-bed pressure swing adsorption technology. The oxygen recovery, adsorbent productivity, and specific energy demand were found in the range of 0.44 to 0.32, from 205 to 286 kg tO2-1 d, and from 0.556 to 0.767 kWh NmO2-3, respectively, for oxygen purity in the product stream increasing from 89 to 94.7 %.