Orthogonal numerical simulation on multi-factor design for rapid pressure swing adsorption

A two-dimensional model is established to simulate the rapid pressure swing adsorption (RPSA) process used for air separation with single bed. The model considers the transport phenomena occurring in both axial and radial direction. The decision variables include five factors (two heights of dead zone, durations of pressurization and adsorption steps, product extraction ratio), and the performance indexes consist of four variables (product purity, product recovery, bed size factor and average volume product yield). Based on an L₁₆ (4⁵) orthogonal design, 16 cases are arranged and the corresponding simulations are performed until the cycle steady states are reached from a given initial state. Range analysis is used to investigate the relative importance of the five factors on each performance index. Each factor’s optimal level and the corresponding combination is found out for each performance index successively.