A proposal of calculational model for pressure swing adsorption based on the pore diffusion

A calculational model is proposed for the pore-diffusion based PSA. In prin ciple the model is identical with that of the previous work on the surface- diffusion based PSA, except for the diffusion coefficient being inversely p roportional to pressure. From the calculation for a methane-activated carbo n system it is found that the increase in the intraparticle diffusion coeff icient in the depressurization stage increases desorption, but a considerab le desorption still occurs in the purge stage. In this work we also show th at the maximal discharge of sorbate mass increases when the depressurizatio n is accomplished in a short time. The process consisted of the adsorption, depressurization and purge stages is compared with the process having only the adsorption and purge stages in terms of the discharge of sorbate mass and the volume of gas leaving the column bottom.