Performance evaluation of a small-scale laboratory pressure swing adsorption-based oxygen concentratorBaseem H. Al-Sabbagh and Ahmed F. Al-Alawy Chemical Engineering Department, University of Baghdad, College of Engineering, Baghdad, Iraq
E-mail: b.al-sabbagh@coeng.uobaghdad.edu.iq Received: 24 January 2025 Accepted: 5 October 2025 Abstract: Oxygen gas is a vital element for many physical and chemical processes and its generation is a key feature to enhance and sustain a broad range of applications. A small-scale laboratory pressure swing adsorption (PSA) unit was built for concentrated oxygen generation and investigated for the best operating conditions. Key parameters such as oxygen recovery, air factor, and bed size factor are necessary to measure the performance of the PSA process. These are affected by product flow rate, PSA cycle duration, required oxygen purity, applied pressure, and type of adsorbent used. Li-LSX zeolite at constant applied pressure, was used as the main adsorbent for nitrogen in this study under different operating conditions. Results show that a best duration time for both the pressurization and depressurization cycle was found to be 12 s for all flow rates that is ranging from 1 lpm up to 10 lpm. It was found that oxygen recovery would increase directly from 0.05 up to 0.27 with product flow rate range 1–8 lpm, respectively. However, after 8 lpm, a slight decrease in the recovery value was reported. Air factor changes inversely with product flow rate, shows sharp increase at low flow rates and levels off approaching a constant value of ≈ 15 when flow rate become more than 8 lpm. Bed size factor of 400 kg.d/tO2 was found to be the optimum value to obtain oxygen concentration > 90%. Keywords: Oxygen generation; PSA; Air factor; Bed size factor; Oxygen recovery; Li-LSX zeolite Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com. DOI: 10.1007/s11696-025-04425-6
Chemical Papers 80 (1) 747–756 (2026) |
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