Sichuan Transformer Adsorption Technology

Variable pressure adsorption (Pressure Swing Adsorption. referred to as PSA), is a new type of gas adsorption separation technology, its main advantages are: (1) high product purity; (2) generally can be at room temperature and not high pressure work, bed regeneration without heating, energy saving economy; (3) equipment is simple, easy to operate and maintain; (4) continuous cyclic operation, can be fully automated. Therefore, when this new technology came out, it was concerned by the industry of various countries, competing development and research, rapid development, and increasingly mature.

Variable pressure adsorption air separation oxygen production was created in the early 1960s, and in the 1970s to achieve industrial production. Prior to this, most of the traditional industrial air separation devices use deep-cooling distillation method (referred to as deep-cooling method) since the 80's so far CaX and LiX and other high adsorption and separation performance of zeolite molecular sieve development and utilization and process improvement, so that the rapid development of pressure adsorption air separation technology, compared with the deep-cooling air separation device, the PSA process has a short start-up time and easy to open and stop, less energy consumption and operating costs, high degree of automation and maintenance. Compared with deep-cooling air separation plant, PSA process is characterised by short start-up time and easy start-stop, low energy consumption and operation cost, high degree of automation and simple maintenance, small floor space and low civil construction cost. It is more competitive than the deep cooling method in small and medium scale oxygen production where high purity oxygen is not required. Widely used in electric furnace steelmaking, non-ferrous metal smelting, glass processing, methanol production, carbon black production, fertiliser gas production, chemical oxidation process, pulp bleaching, sewage treatment, bio-fermentation, aquaculture, medical and military and many other fields.

In 1960, Skarstrom proposed PSA patent, he used 5A zeolite molecular sieve as adsorbent, with a two-bed PSA device, to separate the oxygen-rich from the air, the process has been improved, and put into industrial production in the 1960s. 80's, the industrial application of pressure-variable adsorption technology made breakthroughs in the progress, mainly in the separation of oxygen and nitrogen, air drying and purification as well as hydrogen purification and so on. Among them, the technological progress of oxygen and nitrogen separation is to combine the new adsorbent carbon molecular sieve with variable pressure adsorption to separate O and N in the air, so as to obtain nitrogen.

With the improved performance and quality of the molecular sieve and the continuous improvement of the VA process, the product purity and recovery rate have been continuously improved, which in turn has led to the economic foothold and industrialisation of VA.