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  DOI Prefix   10.20431


 

International Journal of Advanced Research in Chemical Science
Volume-1 Issue-7, 2014, Page No:17-22

Separation of CO2/H2 Gas Mixture Using Novel 4-Bed and 3-Bed Pressure Swing Adsorption Process

R.S. Thakur1,Vikash Dhanuka1, A.Chandrakar1,Abhimanyu Chakravorty2

1.Department of Chemical Engineering, Institute of Technology Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya (A Central University), Koni, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh
2.NALCO (An Ecolab Company), Panchshil, Magarpatta Road, Pune

Citation : R.S. Thakur,Vikash Dhanuka, A.Chandrakar,Abhimanyu Chakravorty, Separation of CO2/H2 Gas Mixture Using Novel 4-Bed and 3-Bed Pressure Swing Adsorption Process International Journal of Advanced Research in Chemical Science. 2014;1(7):17-22.

Abstract


The CO2 and H2 gas mixture is obtained from various sources such as refinery off gas, and during gasification of petroleum coke and coal. Efficient separation of CO2 is required to use this gas mixture as fuel for energy production. Various methods are available to remove CO2 from the mixture for example cryogenic distillation, membrane separation, absorption and adsorptive separation. Pressure Swing Adsorption(PSA), an adsorptive separation method, is one of the promising methods for CO2 removal due to variety of adsorbent material available and various combinations of PSA cycles possible to fit the process requirement. Most of the PSA cycles proposed in the literature are the variants of the Skarstrom cycles involving four basic steps namely, pressurization, adsorption, blowdown and purge. Based on the nature of adsorption equilibria the adsorptive separation of binary gas mixture has been classified as distillation-like and absorption-like processes. In the distillation like process: both components show competitive adsorption in a binary gas mixture and the separation factor is moderate, whereas in the absorption like process one component preferentially adsorbs over the other and the separation factor is very high (∞). Separation of CO2/H2 using activated carbon is an example of absorption-like process. In this work simulation studies have been carried out to compare the performance of a 4-bed PSA cycle having steps: stripping, enriching, blowdown and pressurization with a 3-bed PSA cycle having steps: stripping, depressurization, blowdown and pressurization, for the separation of a binary mixture of CO2/H2, representing a typical refinery off gas (after treatment). The salient result shows that a moderately high productivity can be achieved with 3-bed PSA compared to the 4-bed PSA for a target purity of 97 mol% of H2, but, the former requires a deep vacuum to facilitate this high productivity using activated carbon as a solid adsorbent.


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