A shortcut computational method for designing nitrogen PSA adsorbents

A computationaly efficient procedure has been developed for determining the influences of various adsorbent properties and operating conditions on N 2 pressure swing adsorption (PSA) process performance. This procedure is unconventional in that it employs a detailed model of mass transfer and limits computations time by assuming linear concentration profiles along the column axis. It provides a facile means of ranking kinetics-based adsorbents. Parametric studies conducted using this procedure show, quite unexpectedly, that the N 2 PSA process performance of carbon molecular sieves is more sensitive to equilibrium capacity and total void volume than to kinetic selectivity or gas uptake rates