Modeling and optimal design of multicomponent vacuum pressure swing adsorber for simultaneous separation of carbon dioxide and hydrogen from industrial waste gas

Adsorption processes are expected to play an important role in carbon dioxide capture, utilization and storage (CCUS). In particular, blast furnace gas (BFG) from the steel industry is one of the major sources of CO 2 emissions, and reducing emissions from this source is a major challenge. BFG can be treated as valuable hydrogen (H 2 ) source through water gas shift reactions, which may allow synthesis of methane and methanol if the purification of these two gases is possible. This study proposes and designs a new Vacuum Pressure Swing Adsorption (VPSA) process that consists of two tandem adsorption columns for simultaneous separation of H 2 and CO 2 from BFG. A mathematical model is developed to predict the performance of the proposed process. The model is fitted to the experimental data using a VPSA pilot plant, which were demonstrated to predict flow rates within an error of 6%. Furthermore, the model was used to perform multi-objective optimization to analyze trade-offs among throughput, energy consumption, CO 2 purity, and recovery. Finally, we analyzed the optimal design and operating conditions such as pressure and column height.