The reliability of VPSA oxygen production plant is mainly reflected by factors such as the failure rate of matching components, the rationality of the process design and the maintenance during downstream usage.

First of all, high-efficiency & durable adsorbent and reasonable process design. The core of VPSA technology is the adsorption efficiency and performance of the adsorbent. Superior adsorbent will have a high separation coefficient, achieving effective gas separation easily. At the same time, outstanding working durability is also indispensable. Generally, service life for more than 10 years could be considered long. In addition, reasonable design of process and complete plant is closely connected with the matching with downstream oxygen application. Reasonable internal process design of the system will ensure low energy consumption and steady operation. The system’s matching with the downstream equipment will also affect its operation time and performance.

Secondly, whether the supporting components like program-controlled valves and power equipment are produced by reliable manufacturers. If the rotary equipment or valves are produced by under-performing manufacturers in order to lower the cost, frequent malfunctions will be caused and the stability of the whole plant will be affected.

Finally, rich engineering experience can guarantee good operating conditions and high operating rates in different industries, atmospheric and climatic circumstances.

In summary, the reliability of VPSA oxygen production plant requires a number of factors such as excellent supporting components, reasonable processes and rich engineering experience.

1. Blast furnace oxygen-rich coal injection. There are two conventional ways for iron & steel smelting. The first is to use the iron ore in blast furnace to smelt the iron of the compound in nature into zero-valent iron, which is the pig iron we often say. The pig iron is then refined through a converter to become a variety of alloy steels or stainless steels that we often see in our daily lives. At the stage of smelting pig iron through blast furnace, we generally adopt pressure swing adsorption technology to provide enriched oxygen by adding oxygen to the blast furnace to optimize the smelting conditions and reduce the cost. Finally we obtain the high-quality pig iron.

2. Electric furnace smelting is the second way. The scrap iron we used in our lives is sorted out and fed into the electric furnace after being reclaimed by the recycling station. In the electric furnace, we use high-purity enriched oxygen for high-temperature smelting to get finished steel.

3. In addition,  pressure swing adsorption technology is also applied in the tail gas treatment of smelting furnaces such as blast furnaces and converters mentioned above, which is mainly to adsorb the useful CO by pressure swing adsorption technology, and then purify and refine it for the synthesis reaction in chemical and other fields.

The pressure swing adsorption technology is mainly applied in C1 chemistry in the chemical industry. Does anyone know where objects like daily beverage bottles, sofas, quick-drying T-shirts come from? They were all produced by petroleum cracking and then through other synthesis procedures step by step. As we know China is rich in coal and poor in oil. In resent 20 years, the “coal chemical industry” that has been developing is to use coal instead of oil to produce our daily necessities.

So how does the coal chemical industry turn coal into the clothes we wear, the seats we sit on and the water cups we use? The principle is: the coal is gasified through a gas making furnace where the most useful gases such as CO and H2 are separated by pressure swing adsorption technology and then put into use in chemical synthesis, which will eventually produce those daily necessities. In this process, pressure swing adsorption technology must be adopted to solve some technical difficulties. For instance, to achieve efficient separation of CO from N2 or CH4, the pressure swing adsorption technology using copper-based adsorbent is on the must list. China has independent property rights for the technology and has stayed ahead of the international level.

Pressure swing adsorption technology is mainly applied to the recycling of industrial tail gas rich in CO. People may not know that China is the world’s largest manufacturer of steel, calcium carbide and yellow phosphorus, which accounts for more than half of the world’s production. A large amount of industrial exhaust will be released when manufacturing these fundamental industrial products. In the past, these industrial tail gases were discharged into the air directly or after combustion. With the increasing load and emitted gases, a gradual deterioration of the atmospheric environment will take shape, such as haze and acid gases which may even affect the crop growth.

The exhausts like CO mentioned above are waste gases in the industry. Most enterprises treat them by combustion generally, which however not only causes a large amount of carbon dioxide to be discharged into the atmosphere forming the greenhouse effect but also is an inefficient utilization of energy. If these exhaust gases are purified by pressure swing adsorption technology until the purity of CO is increased to 99% or more, with high utilization value, they can be subsequently applied in chemical synthesis. After a series of chemical reactions, they finally become the plastic bottles, quick-drying T-shirts and other commodities in our daily lives. It’s good for both energy conservation and emission reduction, thus promoting the environmental protection.