A PREDICTIVE MODEL FOR A KINETICALLY CONTROLLED PRESSURE SWING ADSORPTION SEPARATION PROCESS

The micropore diffusion model, including the concentration dependence of the micropore diffusivity, originally developed to simulate pressur e swing adsorption air separation for nitrogen production on a carbon molecular sieve, has been applied to a similar process using the zeoli te molecular sieve RS-10. The equilibrium and kinetic parameters for t he model have been determined from single-component breakthrough curve measurements. It is confirmed that the concentration dependence of th e micropore diffusivity has a large effect on the performance of a zeo lite-based kinetically controlled PSA separation process. When this ef fect is allowed for, the model gives performance predictions which are in close agreement with published experimental data.