(400ah) Rigorous Industrial-Scale Optimization of an 8-Bed Pressure Swing Adsorption Process

With growing concerns over the severe environmental issues caused by fossil fuel usage, hydrogen is attracting considerable attention as an eco-friendly energy source. Pressure swing adsorption (PSA) has emerged as a key technology for separating and purifying high-purity hydrogen from gas mixtures. In this study, we aimed to determine the optimal operating conditions for a multi-bed PSA process using coke oven gas (COG) to produce high-purity hydrogen. Specifically, an 8-bed PSA process was simplified into a uni-bed model in Aspen Adsorption, and then integrated with Python to analyze the sensitivity of purity, recovery, and productivity to various operating parameters. Furthermore, by employing a multi-objective optimization method, we identified a Pareto-optimal operating domain in which key performance indicators could be simultaneously improved despite their trade-off relationships. As a result, economically viable operating conditions were secured for producing high-purity hydrogen via PSA, and these findings are expected to provide a valuable reference for the efficient design and operation of hydrogen production processes in the future.