Development of Ultra Rapid Pressure Swing Adsorption

为了将变压吸附（PSA）技术应用于更广泛的领域，必须在开发紧凑、高容量和节能的PSA方面取得突破性进展。为了满足上述需求，目前文献中已经发现了新型吸附剂、新型构型等的开发。我们开发了超快速PSA，周期时间极短，在秒或更短的数量级，使生产能力得到极大的提高。以空气富氧为模型，研制了活塞驱动超快速PSA，通过室内实验和简化的数值模拟，阐明了活塞驱动超快速PSA的基本特性。通过活塞的上下运动引入吸气和排气，可以实现周期为1秒或更短的PSA操作。应用于烟气中二氧化碳的回收，这种新型的PSA在烟气中二氧化碳回收中的应用已成为近年来研究的热点。研究发现，疏水沸石的开发和应用是实现这一目标的必要条件。疏水沸石使得在高水分条件下充分去除二氧化碳成为可能。蜂窝沸石的提出与开发蜂窝沸石的研制是为了获得具有较低压降的高性能URPSA。然而，遗憾的是，要实现基于数学模型的数值模拟所估计的分离性能，还需要进一步的技术改进。

In order to apply the pressure swing adsorption (PSA) technologies to a more variety of the area, breakthrough approaches are essential in terms of the development of the compact, high-capacity and energy-efficient PSAs. Development of novel adsorbents, novel configurations and so on have been found in the literature so far to meet the above-mentioned demand. We have developed the ultra rapid PSA having extremely short cycle time in the order of the magnitude of second or shorter, enabling the drastic enhancement of the production capacity.1. Development of piston-driven ultra rapid PSABy employing the oxygen enrichment form the air as a model case, the piston-driven ultra rapid PSA was developed and its basic characteristics were clarified by laboratory-scale experiments and simplified numerical simulations. The PSA operations with the cycle time of one second or shorter were practically possible by introducing suction and exhaust by the up-and-down motion of the piston.2. Application to the carbon dioxide recovery from stack gasThe application of this novel PSA to the recovery of carbon dioxide from stack gases which has been paid attention to in these days. It was found that the development and employment of the hydrophobic zeolite are necessary for this purpose. The hydrophobic zeolite has made it possible to sufficiently remove the carbon dioxide in high moisture conditions.3. Proposal and development of honeycomb zeoliteThe honeycomb zeolite was developed and prepared to derive the high performance of the URPSA,which has much less pressure drop. However, unfortunately it was found that the further technical improvements are needed to achieve the separation performance estimated by the numerical simulations based on a mathematical model.