Compact rapid pressure swing adsorption processes - impact of novel adsorbent monoliths

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Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) processes are a promising solution for developing energy-efficient units for gas separation and purification, especially in small-scale applications where compact adsorber design is essential. Achieving high productivity requires short cycle times and the use of small adsorbent particles for fast adsorption kinetics, leading to the concept of Rapid Pressure Swing Adsorption (RPSA). However, challenges such as high pressure drop and low mechanical stability of adsorbents limit the size of particles that can be used. This work explores novel monolithic adsorbent-polymer materials that offer low pressure drop and high mechanical stability. These monoliths are produced by extruding zeolitic polymer matrices with thermoplastic materials, followed by thermal treatment to create a secondary pore structure that enhances mass transport properties. The performance of these new adsorbents is compared to commercial pellets through adsorption equilibria and kinetics studies, using water vapor on a Zeolite 4A-Polyamide compound as a case study. A detailed RPSA process model incorporating developed adsorption models has been validated experimentally. Efficient numerical methods, particularly the Continuous Countercurrent Model (CCM), have been explored to analyze the RPSA process. Simulations demonstrate that the monolithic adsorbents significantly improve productivity by overcoming kinetic and pressure drop l