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OXYGEN PLANTS: WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A PSA AND VPSA OXYGEN PLANT?

Essentiality of Oxygen plants is definitely not unknown to you. As, we need air filled with Oxygen to survive. And, the air which we intake consists of approximately only 21% of Oxygen, 78% nitrogen, 9% argon, and rest are other gases. So, to separate Oxygen out of all these unwanted gases, PSA Oxygen plant comes in existence.

For your information there are some supply methods by which Oxygen and Nitrogen are produced. These methods include PSA i.e. Normal Pressure Swing Adsorption Oxygen Generator and VPSA i.e. Vacuum Pressure Swing Adsorption.

PSA Oxygen plant has its usage in various types of fields like Paper and Pulp industries, Glass industries, Metallurgical industries, Chemical industries, Water and Wastewater treatment, Fish farming. But, more commonly used Oxygen Generator is VPSA Oxygen Generator.

VPSA Oxygen generator is generally preferred when Oxygen need is higher than normal. It is used when large scale Oxygen production is required. It has some complex process equipment and hence is considered somewhat costlier than PSA. Is has a brilliant feature of lower power consumption.

It is considered the most powerful process for air separation. That is the reason, whenever process of non-cryogenic air separation has to be performed, this technology is best suited. It has the capacity to produce pure Oxygen and Nitrogen which reaches its purity level from 90 to 95%. Rest are the impurities which falls in percentage like 4.5 to 5% which may be nitrogen and argon.

Let me tell you about the some important parts out of which it is comprised of. These major parts include:

  • Vacuum blower
  • A rotary-lobe feed air blower
  • An oxygen surge tank
  • One or two adsorbent vessels
  • Switching valves
  • Computer controls

 

Major difference which you can find out is about the vacuum blowers which helps in reducing the desorption pressure, which ultimately reduces the inlet pressure. VPSA system is hence considered to produce oxygen which is 0.2 atmospheres, gauge.

In VPSA system fewer amount of air needs to be processed, as sieve material is regenerated using the vacuum conditions. When an Oxygen booster compressor or blower is added to the VPSA system, it tends to produce higher Oxygen delivery pressure. You will be grateful to know about the Bed systems it consists of: Single Bed System and Two Bed System.

Single Bed system is method used for separation of air. This consists of a blower which helps in extracting air which is then sent to adsorbent vessel for removing impurities. Blower plays the main role as it eliminates the gas by dropping the pressure present inside the vessel. By doing so, some of the unwanted products like Carbon Dioxide, Nitrogen and water are released in the air.

Two Bed System is somewhat similar to one bed system as they both have similar adsorption process cycle. Here for the process of adsorption to desorption, each cycle plays a vital role and continues sequentially for each bed.

Some of the differences which you can witness between PSA and VPSA can be described as:

  • Energy efficiency is the key for VPSA systems which is not found in PSA. VPSA systems shows their energy efficiency when same product flow, pressure as well as purity conditions are there.
  • VPSA systems are said to be much more inexpensive than PSA systems, if production rate is found to be more than 20 tons per day which can be 60 tons too or more.

It’s always better to buy PSA Oxygen plant from PSA Oxygen manufacturer. One of the smartest way to purchase these PSA Oxygen Generators is to purchase it from the Trimech India, which is the biggest PSA Oxygen plant supplier in India.



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