Hydrogen Purification Performance of Pressure Swing Adsorption in Coal-Derived Activated Carbon/Zeolite 13X Layered Bed

The large-scale production of high-purity hydrogen via pressure swing adsorption (PSA) remains a prominent research focus. This study develops a multi-component heat and mass transfer model for a lean hydrogen mixture (N2/CO2/H2/CO = 44.6/35.4/19.9/0.1 mol%) on a coal-derived activated carbon (AC)/zeolite 13X layered bed to investigate its breakthrough curve and PSA purification performance. The model is implemented on the Aspen Adsorption platform and validated with published data. Parametric analysis of the breakthrough curve reveals that a high pressure and a low feed flow rate can delay the breakthrough of impurity gases. The simulated variations in pressure, purity, and recovery during the PSA cycle align with the published results. Studies on PSA cycle parameters show that, in general, a high pressure, a low feed flow rate, a short adsorption time, and a high P/F ratio improve purity but reduce recovery. The purity and recovery of the layered bed outperform those of the single-layer bed. Specifically, gradually modifying the AC/zeolite 13X length ratio from 10:0 to 5:5 enhances hydrogen purity, while adjusting it from 10:0 to 3:7 enhances hydrogen recovery. At AC/zeolite 13X = 5:5, the highest purity was 97.38%, while at AC/zeolite 13X = 3:7, the highest recovery was 49.13%.