Abstract: A pilot set-up was built to test a novel four-bed pressure swing adsorption (PSA) process with a hydrogen-separation operation.The new PSA process features intermediate surge tanks, through which depressurization and re-pressurization of columns are accomplished. As consequence, the coupling between columns via pressure-equalization is disconnected, and the possibility of operating the process at lower pressure is provided. A new cycle sequence was suggested for the new PSA process. Operations of separating hydrogen from a mixture of H₂/N₂/CH₄ of molar ratio 60/10/30, which simulated the dry gas of refineries, were performed on such process at pressures lower than 1.0 MPa. Process performance was studied with columns packed consecutively with adsorbents composed of ordinary activated carbon (OAC) with ZMS-5A, and that of superactivated carbon(SAC) with ZMS-5A for the pressure range 0.4—1.0 MPa. It was proven that a relatively high recovery and as high as 99.99% of purity of the product could be realized at low pressures with the new PSA technology.

Key words: 分离, 吸附, PSA, 制氢

摘要： 通过提氢实验研究一种新的变压吸附工艺.变压吸附流程的主要特征是通过中间均压罐打开吸附塔之间由均压步骤形成的耦联，从而实现了各塔操作的独立性，并提供了降低吸附压力的可能性.以H₂/N₂/CH₄（60/10/30）混合气模拟石油炼厂干气，进行低吸附压力（≤1 MPa）条件下的提氢操作.针对已有变压吸附工艺的不足和新流程特征，确定了新流程的变压吸附循环时序.分别采用普通活性炭（OAC）和高比表面活性炭（SAC）与5A沸石分子筛（ZMS-5A）的组合吸附剂，研究了不同吸附压力下的变压吸附分离效果，证明此种变压吸附新工艺在1 MPa以下、甚至0.4 MPa的低吸附压力下运行，亦可在较高的回收率下达到99.99%的高氢气纯度，并且显示出更强的对偶然性故障的应变能力.

关键词: 分离, 吸附, PSA, 制氢