초록 ▼

A rapid pressure swing adsorption process utilizes two or more adsorbent beds, each of which undergoes on a cyclic basis, high pressure feed-adsorption, countercurrent exhaust and repressurization. The feeding of the feed gas mixture, such as air, to the adsorption system is temporarily discontinued

A rapid pressure swing adsorption process utilizes two or more adsorbent beds, each of which undergoes on a cyclic basis, high pressure feed-adsorption, countercurrent exhaust and repressurization. The feeding of the feed gas mixture, such as air, to the adsorption system is temporarily discontinued upon completion of the feed step to each bed, with the discontinuity of feed before commencing the passing of said feed gas mixture to the next succeeding bed being essentially the same throughout the processing cycle, with the feed step at adsorption pressure for each bed being essentially the same and with said feed step being shorter in duration than said exhaust step.

대표청구항 ▼

In a rapid pressure swing adsorption process for the selective adsorption of at least one more readily adsorbable gas component from a feed gas mixture in an adsorption system having at least two adsorbent beds, each of which undergoes a cyclic processing sequence that includes (1) feeding said gas

In a rapid pressure swing adsorption process for the selective adsorption of at least one more readily adsorbable gas component from a feed gas mixture in an adsorption system having at least two adsorbent beds, each of which undergoes a cyclic processing sequence that includes (1) feeding said gas mixture to the feed end of the bed for adsorption at high adsorption pressure, with withdrawal of the less readily adsorable gas component as product effluent from the discharge end of the bed, (2) countercurrently depressurizing said bed, thereby exhausting the more readily adsorbable component from the feed end of the bed, and (3) repressurizing said bed from the lower pressure reached during countercurrent depressurization, the improvement comprising temporarily discontinuing the feeding of said gas mixture to the adsorption system upon completion of the feed step to each bed in the system, the time of said feed step to each bed and the time of discontinuity of feed before commencing the passing of said gas mixture to the next succeeding bed being approximately the same throughout the processing cycle, the feed step at adsorption pressure for each bed being shorter in duration than said exhaust step, whereby the discontinous feed cycle enables greater productivity to be achieved for a given product gas purity without increase the size of the adsorption system, thereby enhancing overall process performance.