(402f) Simulation and Optimization of Vacuum Pressure Swing Adsorption Processes for Coalbed Methane Purification

This study focuses on the dynamic simulation and optimization of vacuum pressure swing adsorption (VPSA) processes which allow more efficient recovery of methane from coalbed methane (CBM) gas than pressure swing adsorption (PSA) processes. In other words, this work presents 1) the newly developed simulation model (Ko, 2016) which can calculate an accurate interstitial gas velocity within adsorption beds, 2) the successful scale up design (up to 10,000 times) results by using the optimization approach (Ko et al., 2005), and 3) the effect of different operating conditions on the performances such as the purity and recovery of methane. The optimal design conditions of VPSA pilot plants (10Nm³/h of feed flow rate) to purify coalbed methane (CBM) gas are also obtained according to different performance specifications by using the developed simulation and optimization approach. As a conclusion, the developed model for the simulation and optimization is very efficient in the scale up design as well as in predicting the performances accurately.