Characterisation of an Automated Dual Piston Pressure Swing Adsorption (DP-PSA) System

The drive to fast Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) processes leads to the challenge of designing and analysing experiments that allow the testing of adsorbents under fast cycle conditions. Here we present the Dual Piston-Pressure Swing Adsorption (DP-PSA) system and the accompanying mathematical model designed for this purpose. The comparisons of experimental and simulation results show that for slow cycles often an isothermal model is sufficient. However, for fast cycles the temperature profile over the cycle has to be taken into account to describe accurately the experimental curves; this is essential for the estimation of the parameters of the adsorbent material under fast cycle conditions.