Optimizing purity and recovery of hydrogen from syngas by equalized psa using palm kernel shell activated carbon adsorbent
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Date
2018-06
Authors
Shanthini Gobi
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Abstract
This thesis is concerned with the adsorbent preparation, design and operation
of Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) unit at optimum condition for the effective
syngas separation processes. The aim of the study is directed towards optimizing the
purity and recovery of hydrogen gas from the syngas. The first detailed study presented
in this work deals with the preparation of activated palm kernel shell (ACPKS) and its
characterization study. In adsorbent preparation, optimum activation temperature of
about 800ºC has been used. Whereas, the characterization study reveals that the
specific surface area of the prepared adsorbent is around 697.67m²/g with pore volume
and pore size of 0.35m3/g and 2.01nm respectively. The average particle size of the
adsorbent sample is recorded as 0.11µm. Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and
X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis uncovers the spongy structure of the highly
amorphous ACPKS. Breakthrough studies at varying adsorption pressure were
executed and 3 bar adsorption pressure is chosen for the subsequent optimization
study. Based on the software analysis, the optimum operating condition of the PSA
unit is predicted at 5 minutes adsorption and blowdown time. A systematic and
rigorous methodology are employed towards attaining the similar data as predicted by
the software. The PSA study which operated at the optimum operating condition
yielded hydrogen purity of up to 99.978% with recovery of 80.014%. The results
obtained shows a close agreement with the predicted data given by the software.