PSA hydrogen purification, the real cyclic transient

A genuine 2-bed pressure swing adsorption cycle solved to a periodic steady state — competitive-Langmuir equilibrium and linear-driving-force kinetics, not an assumed recovery.

Real cyclic 2-bed Skarstrom-cycle transient•Tanks-in-series bed discretization•Linear-driving-force competitive-Langmuir kinetics

Shift gas (H2/CO2)

PSA (2-bed)

H2 product

CO2-rich tail gas

The actual dark-mode canvas: a shift-gas feed purified across a real cyclic 2-bed PSA — one bed adsorbing while the other regenerates, countercurrently swept by product — the same P&ID symbols you edit in the app.

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The real cyclic transient, not a fixed-recovery shortcut

The solver runs the genuine Skarstrom-cycle bed physics — competitive-Langmuir equilibrium, linear-driving-force kinetics, and a tanks-in-series bed discretization — to a periodic steady state, not an assumed recovery fraction.

q_i^* = \frac{q_{max,i}\,b_i\,p_i}{1 + \sum_j b_j\,p_j} \quad \text{(competitive Langmuir isotherm)}

\frac{\partial q_i}{\partial t} = k_{LDF,i}\bigl(q_i^* - q_i\bigr) \quad \text{(linear driving force kinetics)}

\text{bed mass balance: } \varepsilon\,\frac{\partial c_i}{\partial t} + (1-\varepsilon)\rho_p\,\frac{\partial q_i}{\partial t} + \frac{\partial (u\,c_i)}{\partial z} = 0

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Pressure swing adsorption

Real cyclic 2-bed transient — tanks-in-series kinetics toward a periodic steady state.

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Live plant integration

Stream bed pressure, cycle-step timing, and product purity from your PSA's OPC-UA server into this flowsheet's twin comparison — deviations from the solved periodic steady state are flagged automatically.

See the Digital Twin platform →