Operation of Vacuum Pressure Swing Adsorption without Purge Gas and Proposal of a Valuation Method

Abstract

In this study we propose new techniques for evaluating operating conditions employed for vacuum pressure swing adsorption (VPSA) in the recovery of volatile organic compounds (VOC). The new method incorporates a precoating step for the mesoporous activated carbon in the adsorption column, but does not use purge gas for the desorption step. The evaluation technique employs the arrival time of cyclic steady state (T_A) as a measure of effectiveness. By precoating the mesoporous activated carbon with adsorbate, the concentration of purified gas was reduced to the detection limit of measurement without using purge gas, and VOC were recovered in the liquid state. We also performed evaluations under a variety of operating conditions using T_A.