The adsorption technology is based on the sorption of certain substances by molecular sieves with the resulting air mixture separation. The adsorption technology allows efficiently producing such gases as nitrogen and oxygen from atmospheric air.
Plants operation is based on the pressure swing adsorption principle with the feed air pressure exceeding the atmospheric level at the adsorption stage, and depressurization to the atmospheric pressure at the desorption stage.
When air passes through one of the two alternating absorbers filled with adsorbent - the carbon-molecular sieve oxygen is preferentially adsorbed by the sieve, while the gas media is becoming saturated with nitrogen. After the molecular sieve is saturated with oxygen, the air is diverted to the other adsorber. The used adsorber is then depressurized and purged with part of the product nitrogen, while the sieve is cleared from the adsorbed oxygen and is regenerated. The adsorption based process of air separation is performed within the temperature range of +10 to +40 °С.
