A new pressure swing adsorption process was proposed for treatment of low-VOC-concentration air streams. Feed gas is supplied to the high pressure column at some intermediate position to divide it into an enriching and a stripping sections. A part of air stream leaving the high pressure column is returned to the low pressure column as stripping reflux while air stream leaving the low pressure column is returned totally to the high pressure column as enriching reflux. With this dual reflux policy, VOC vapor can be enriched in the enriching section up to a concentration high enough to be condensed in liquid state as well as VOC free air is produced in the stripping section. High efficiency of the dual reflux PSA was confirmed experimentally in a lab-scale unit with a model system of ethanol-activated carbon for various parameters such as half cycle time, feed rate, feed inlet position etc. The optimum feed inlet position was found experimentally and its behavior was interpreted based on an analytical simulation by short cycle time approximation.
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