A MODIFIED CONTINUOUS COUNTERCURRENT-FLOW MODEL FOR A PSA SEPARATION PROCESS

The continuous countercurrent flow (CCF) model for pressure swing adso rption (PSA) systems has so far been validated for Skarstrom cycle in which the pressurization and blowdown steps and adsorption and purge s teps have equal durations. The mass balance was written in such a way that the total volumes of feed and purge were kept constant between th e actual operation and the steady state CCF representation. By relaxin g this restriction on the mass balance, it is shown that the usefulnes s of the CCF model may be extended to cycles in which the durations of the individual steps are different.