Process intensification aims at reducing the size of equipment by orders of magnitude and is actively perused in separation processes. Its feasibility in Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) processes has been explored. A 4-bed PSA and a 3-bed PSA, which emulate the moving bed processes, and duplex PSA and a modified duplex PSA have been selected for the exploratory studies. Simulation studies on the separation of a mixture of CH 4 -CO 2 over 5A zeolite were carried out to compare the performance of these processes. An index has been proposed to quantify the process intensification. The 3-bed PSA and the modified duplex PSA exhibited superior performance compared to the other two for a purity of 99.9 mol% of both the products. However, the performances of the processes other than duplex were comparable when purities were set at 95 mol%. In 3-bed PSA a modest process intensification of four times reduction in size and two times reduction in energy requirement appears to be feasible if benchmarked against the PSA based on the variant of the Skarstrom cycle. Notations bLangmuir parameter (m 3 /mol) c Concentration in gas phase (mol/m 3 ) C A Particle diameter (mm) D Diameter of bed (mm) D L0 Dispersion coefficient (m 2 /s) D M Molecular diffusivity (m 2 /s) E Energy (kJ/mol·feed) f Friction factor g c Gravitational constant (m/s 2 ) I P I , I P I Index for process intensification (thousand US $/y·(mol/s)) k i Linear driving force constant (s −1 ) L Bed length (m) L e Equivalent length of the valve (m) n Number of moles N Number of components P Pressure (bar) P Productivity of CH 4 (LSTP/h·kg of adsorbent) P H Adsorption pressure (bar) P I Intermediate desorption pressure (bar) P L Desorption pressure (bar) P 1 , P 2 Pressures used in (9) (bar) q Amount adsorbed in solid phase (mol/m 3 ) q e Amount adsorbed in solid phase at equilibrium with gas phase (mol/m 3 ) q s Saturation constant (mol/m 3 ) Q T Total amount adsorbed in solid phase (mol/m 3 ) R Universal Gas constant (bar·m 3 /mol·K) 122 Adsorption (2011) 17: 121-133
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