A Sensitive Method Approach for Chromatographic Analysis of Gas Streams in Separation Processes Based on Columns Packed with an Adsorbent Material

Figure 2

Schematics of adsorption based separation processes, namely, (a) PSA cycle implemented for the CO₂/N₂ separation. For the sake of simplicity the scheme only shows the sequential steps of the cycle for one column: Pressurization (PR), High Pressure Adsorption (HPA), High Pressure Blowdown (HBD), Low Pressure Blowdown (LBD), and Low Pressure Purge (LPG). (b) Conventional SMB scheme, which is divided into four zones, one for adding the gaseous desorbent or carrier gas (E), one for withdrawing the slow-migrating adsorbates (X), one for continuous feeding (F), and the last one for withdrawing the fast-migrating adsorbates (R). The positions of the input and output streams are shifted downstream by one column, at fixed intervals, in the direction of gas flow. SP: sampling port.

(a) PSA/VSA

(b) SMB