Pressure swing adsorption
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Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) is a technology that is used to separate some species from a gas under pressure according to these species' molecular characteristics. It operates at near-ambient temperatures and so differs from cryogenic distillation techniques of gas separation. Special adsorptive materials (e.g., zeolites) are used as a molecular sieve, preferentially adsorbing the undesired gases at high pressure. The process then swings to low pressure to desorb the adsorbent material. Using two adsorbent chambers allows near-continuous production of the target gas.
One application of PSA is the separation of carbon dioxide (CO2) from biogas to increase the methane (CH4) content. Through PSA the biogas can be upgraded to a quality similar to natural gas.
Similarly PSA is an economic choice for small-scale production of reasonable purity oxygen or nitrogen from air. PSA technology has a major use in the medical industry to produce oxygen, particularly in remote or inaccessible parts of the world where bulk cryogenic or compressed cylinder storage are not possible.
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