A METHOD TO OBTAIN A COMPACT REPRESENTATION OF PROCESS PERFORMANCES FROM A NUMERICAL SIMULATOR - EXAMPLE OF PRESSURE SWING ADSORPTION FOR PURE HYDROGEN-PRODUCTION

The purpose of this work is to propose a method of global characteriza tion of the behaviour of pressure-swing-adsorption (PSA) cycles based on statistical experiments design, the 'experiments' being actually nu merical (simulation). The result of that procedure presented here is a set of polynomials describing the performances of the PSA cycles (pur ity, yield, productivity) as functions of operating or design variable s (flow rates, pressures, composition, bed length, step durations). Th ese polynomials represent the sensitivity of the position, bed length, step durations). These polynomials represent the sensitivity of the p rocess to fluctuations, perturbations or international changes of proc ess variables, and can be used, within their range of validity, as a f ast aid to operators, and as a tool for design and optimization. The s pecific case investigated is a PSA cycle for pure hydrogen production from a mixture with CO2, CH4, CO and N2 obtained by cracking natural g as. The process comprises two adsorbent beds, each containing a zeolit e layer on top of an active carbon layer.