Shortcut Formula for the Evaluation of Adsorbents in Pressure Swing Adsorption

Although many new adsorbent materials are being developed for CO2 capture with the aim of using them in the industrial pressure swing adsorption ( PSA) setting, the lack of a systematic methodology to evaluate their economic potentials with consideration of the energy requirement at the process level stands as a major challenge. As a step towards building such a methodology, we present a shortcut formula to calculate the theoretical efficiency of adsorbents in a PSA system. The shortcut formula calculates the amount of captured CO2 based on an instantaneous isotherm approximation per consumed energy based on an ideal gas compressor. This study also suggests a method to calculate the pressure range satisfying a given target purity. The pressure range acts as a constraint when determining a proper operating pressure of a PSA system. The simulation of a PSA system based on rigorous model is carried out to support the validity of the formula. The trend of the efficiency with respect to the operating pressure, obtained from the formula is compared with that from the rigorous simulation.