變壓吸附法為一分離氣體混合物之連續性循環程序，利用氣體混合物中各成分對吸附劑之吸附能力的不同而產生的吸附選擇性來篩選氣體，並利用高壓吸附、低壓脫附以得到高濃度的產物。由於氣體高壓吸附時會釋放熱量，將增加吸附床溫度而不利於吸附進行，另一方面，氣體低壓脫附時為吸熱過程，將降低吸附床溫度而不利於脫附進行。因此在此計畫中，利用目前進行之第一年計畫所發展的具熱交換雙半圓柱吸附床模擬經驗，設計熱交換多吸附床如1/4圓柱吸附床或多同軸套管吸附床，其中1/4圓柱吸收床設計成通過側表面面積彼此接觸和熱交換，而多同軸套管吸收床設計成通過管壁彼此進行熱交換，希望藉由合適的變壓吸附程序之操作程序，將進行吸附步驟的床中所放出的熱量經由管壁傳至正在進行脫附步驟需熱的床，達到更佳的吸附及脫附效果。最後將熱交換多吸附床與傳統圓柱型吸附床性能進行比較，並設計一較傳統圓柱型吸附床高性能和可行的變壓吸附程序。 ;Pressure swing adsorption (PSA) is a cyclic process to separate gas mixtures based on the difference of adsorption capacity of each component on adsorbent. This technology consists of gas adsorption at high pressure and desorption at low pressure to produce high-purity product. The heat released during gas adsorption will increase the bed temperature, which is unfavorable to adsorption. On the other hand, gas desorption is an endothermic process, which will decrease the bed temperature, so it is unfavorable to desorption. In this study, the traditional cylindrical adsorbers are replaced by heat-exchange one-quarter cylindrical or multi-coaxial tubular adsorbers. The one-quarter cylindrical adsorbers are designed to contact and exchange heat to each other by lateral surface area. The multi-coaxial tubular adsorbers are designed to exchange heat to each other by the tube walls. To achieve better adsorption and desorption effects, the adsorption heat released from one bed during adsorption process can be transferred through the wall to the neighboring desorption bed which needs heat to desorb the adsorbed gases in an appropriate PSA operating process. In our current first-year project, we are studying the performance improvement by utilizing dual semicylindrical adsorber instead of traditional cylindrical adsorber. In this proposed second-year project, the research is extended to study one-quarter cylindrical or multi-coaxial tubular adsorbers, and to compare it with the performance of the traditional cylindrical adsorber, and expects to design a practicable pressure swing adsorption process with high performance for gas separation than traditional cylindrical adsorber.
