Effects of operating temperature on the performance of small scale rapid cycle pressure swing adsorption air separation process

The effects of operating temperature on the performance of small scale oxygen concentrator were experimentally investigated using a rotary valve multi-column rapid cycle pressure swing adsorption (PSA) unit which produced a continuous stream of ≥ 90% O2 from compressed air. Simple cooling fans and air cylinder were used for controlling the temperature of compressed air. The change of column midpoint gas temperature inside adsorption column was relatively small and approximately 3–5 K with a low pressure ratio of ~ 250:101 kPa during each cycle. The oxygen recovery could be improved by increasing the operating temperature and the bed size factor (BSF) could be reduced by decreasing the operating temperature. However, the adverse thermal effects on oxygen recovery and BSF became more dominant at very low and high operating temperatures. A similar trend between unit power and BSF at different operating temperature was emerged. There was an appropriate temperature range for achieving favorable performance.