This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project is based on a novel separation concept: push/pull adsorption. The presently available technologies for producing oxygen are cryogenic distillation and pressure swing adsorption, both of which use pressure-volume work. With either of these technologies oxygen typically costs $40/ton for industrial scale production with most of this cost going for electrical energy. Because push/pull adsorption replaces electrical energy with steam, it has much lower energy and dollar costs. Push/pull adsorption has the further advantage of being suitable for small-scale oxygen production.
A major reduction in the cost of oxygen will be of immediate benefit to steel making, glass manufacturing, and all the other industries in which oxygen is used. Cheaper oxygen would also make it practical to produce gasoline and other fuels from coal via the Fischer-Tropsch process, ending America's dependence on foreign oil.
