Abstract
The paper formulates and provides a solution of the problem of determining the design parameters (the inner diameter of the adsorber, the length of the adsorbent layer, the diameter of the adsorbent granule, the capacity of the inlet and exhaust valves) and the regime (control) variables (pressure at the compressor outlet, the adsorption–desorption cycle time, the backflow coefficient regularities, changes in the degree of opening of the inlet and exhaust valves over time), under which the maximum degree of oxygen recovery is achieved in a two-adsorber installation pressure swing adsorption (PSA) with zeolite adsorbent 13X. The solution takes into account fulfillment of the constraints for oxygen purity, unit capacity and resource-saving of granular adsorbent. The computational experiment was used to study the effect of optimal regime (control) variables on the degree of recovery and purity of product oxygen, gas flow rate in the front layer of the adsorbent, and the capacity of the PSA unit. It is established that the complete abrupt opening of the inlet and exhaust valves does not provide for the fulfillment of constraints on the air flow rate in the front layer of the adsorbent (=0.2 m / s), which leads to abrasion, dusting and shortening the life of the granular adsorbent in cyclic adsorption-desorption processes and requires defining the regularities of changes in the degree of valve opening in terms of time, the implementation of which eliminates hydraulic shock and destruction of the adsorbent.
