Pressure swing adsorption (PSA) is a periodic adsorption process that utilizes the kinetic effects arising from diffusion rate differences in the sorbent among fluid mixture components to elicit a specie separation. It is a key industrial separation methodology that in most applications to date is bound by thermodynamic equilibrium limitations. The proposed research aims to extend the range of this technology by exploring the kinetic phase of PSA which, although still a relatively new methodology, holds the promise for an increasingly large number of significant industrial applications. This research is a systematic theoretical and experimental study designed to establish a firm basis for this new and novel technology. Included in the work will be three important separations: O2/N2 (AIR), CO2/CH4, and N2/CH4. The latter will be most challenging because there are no commercial adsorbents available with the requisite sorbent equilibrium selectivity. Several promising candidates have been identified and will be investigated. The theoretical research along with the adjunct experimentation here proposed will provide a firm foundation for this new separation method for a wide range of potentially economically important processes.
