Abstract: The PSA cycling process for nitrogen production,based on the difference in adsorption kinetics of oxygen and nitrogen on a commercial carbon molecular sieve, is systematically studied. Some results of developing models and algorithms are reported in this paper. A linear driving force model (LDF) of mass transfer is introduced into the mathematical model of the cycling process and an iteration algorithm combined with an orthogonal collocation method for solving PDEs is developed. Computation shows the high efficiency and stability of the algorithm. With this model, the performance of a pilot plant packed with 15Kg of carbon molecular sieve, BF-CMS, is simulated and predicted under different operation conditions. This paper also discusses the effects of thermodynamic and kinetic parameters on the unit performance.

Key words: pressure swing adsorption, simulation, modeling, air separation