Novel High Purity Oxygen Generator. Final Report on Phase 2

摘要

The work detailed in the report was undertaken to demonstrate commercial feasibility of producing 99.5 vol % purity oxygen by combining a pressure swing adsorption (PSA) process with a continuous membrane column (CMC). State of the art membrane materials were characterized by reported literature values and by actual experimental testing. Membrane properties were used in mathematical models of the CMC to establish performance limits of the CMC. The modeling effort established the CMC and PSA parameters required to achieve the desired oxygen purity. A minimum oxygen/argon selectivity of about 4.5 is needed to economically produce high purity oxygen, while a selectivity of 4 appears to be optimistic with available membrane materials. Neither process alone is capable of producing the desired oxygen purity. A state-of-the-art PSA system was operated at a maximum purity of 98.2% oxygen and the best CMC simulation with an air feed indicated a maximum purity of 98.7% at a very high recycle.