Study of Nitrogen Production from Air Using Pressure Swing Adsorption

Ehsan Javadi Shokroo, Masoud Mofarahi

Chemical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Persian Gulf University, Bushehr

Abstract
Nitrogen production from air using carbon molecular sieve adsorbent and pressure swing adsorption has been studied by
running experiments on a two-bed semi-industrial unit and also numerical simulation investigation. The model equations in
the gas phase include the mass, energy and momentum balances. In this paper, effect of feed flow rate, purge-to-feed ratio
as well as adsorption step time on nitrogen purity and recovery has been investigated. Results show that increase of feed
flow rate leads to the decrease of nitrogen purity while the recovery increases. With an increment of nitrogen purity its
recovery was falling. In addition, based on experimental and numerical simulations results in nitrogen separation from air
and in cyclic steady state the process temperature changes about 2.5 c only and this means that the process can be assumed
to be isothermal. Furthermore, results of studies show that the productivity is in reverse order to purity. The simulation
results are very good agreement with experimental data.

Keywords: Pressure Swing Adsorption; Oxygen and Nitrogen Separation from Air; Nitrogen Production; Oxygen
Production; Mathematical Modeling; Numerical Simulation.

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Component
Parameter
O2 N2 Ar
3
k1×10 (mol/gr) 15.27 23.63 20.42
6
k2×10 (mol/gr.k) -32.3 -63.8 -53
k3×104 (1/atm) 22.9 659 239.7
k4 (k) 966.1 49.65 324.6
k5 (--) 1.187 1.692 1.646
k6 (k) -106 -270 -238.2
Heat of adsorption, - Hi (cal/mol) 3300.59 3300.21 3400.97
Diffusion rate constant (s-1) 0.024 0.000047 0.00009
Mp\Sw\To 1; ( ! , ," $0 6 <,
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Adsorbent
Adsorbent [This work] Carbon Molecular Sieve
Type [This work] Sphere
Average pellet radius, Rp (cm), [67] 0.115
3
Particle density, p (gr/cm ), [67] 1.1
3
Bulk density, B (gr/cm ), [67] 0.82
Heat capacity, Cps (cal/gr.k), [67] 0.27
Particle porosity, , [67] 0.255
Adsorption Bed
Length, L (cm), [This work] 76
Inside radius, RB,i (cm), [This work] 2.138
Outside radius, RB,o (cm), [This work] 2.415
Heat capacity of column, Cpw (cal/gr.k), [67] 0.12
3
Density of column, w (gr/cm ), [67] 7.83
Internal heat transfer coefficient, hi (cal/cm2.k.s), [67] 9.2×10-4
2
External heat transfer coefficient, ho (cal/cm .k.s), [67] 3.4×10-4

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Prod. Step Press. Press. Step Prod. Step Feed Flow Prod. Flow Purge Flow
No. Purity Recovery
(bar) Time(s) Time(s) rate (Ln/min) rate (Ln/min) rate (Ln/min)
1 5.5 15 20 10.43 2.38 1.5 0.945 0.272
 2 5.5 15 20 16.78 9.92 1.5 0.894 0.669
3 5.5 15 20 24.21 16.979 2.3 0.864 0.767
4 5.5 15 20 13.33 4.86 1.2 0.939 0.433
5 5.5 15 30 19.54 3.65 2 0.957 0.226
6 5.5 15 40 20.1 3.85 2 0.945 0.229
7 5.5 15 50 19.5 3.5 2 0.921 0.209
8 8.5 15 20 21.859 7.381 2 0.935 0.399
9 8.5 15 20 18.468 5.65 2 0.949 0.367
10 8.5 15 20 15.929 3.354 1.5 0.962 0.256
11 8.5 15 20 13.87 3 1.6 0.974 0.266

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