OPTIMAL DESIGN OF RESOURCE-SAVING ADSORPTION UNITS FOR HYDROGEN RECOVERY ON BLOCK ADSORBENTS

The paper presents a new approach to the design of resource-saving pressure swing adsorption (PSA) installations for hydrogen recovery, which ensures a safe flow rate in the frontal layer of the block adsorbent using optimal programs for multi-stage smooth opening of the valves of the installation. The safe flow rate of 0.3 m/s was determined experimentally, which practically eliminates the abrasion of the adsorbent during the PSA process. An iterative algorithm was proposed to reduce the problem of optimal installation design to the problem of nonlinear programming. A number of optimization problems of design of the installation with a capacity of 100-4000 l/min STP and a hydrogen purity of 99.99%+ were solved using the example of a hydrogen 4-bed 4-step vacuum PSA. The optimal combinations of mode and design parameters of the PSA installation and the trends of their changes depending on capacity were determined. An exhaustive comparative analysis of PSA installations designed according to a new and traditional approach was carried out. It was found that installations designed according to the new approach secure a greater profit from hydrogen production by an average of 28.3% due to lower energy consumption for hydrogen production and weight and size characteristics (the length of the adsorbent layer and the inner diameter of the adsorber) compared to installations that are designed according to the traditional approach