Shaanxi Chemical’s pressure swing adsorption optimization upgrade helps improve the quality and efficiency of BDO production

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Shaanxi Chemical’s efficiency improvement upgrades for pressure swing adsorption help enhance BDO quality and productivity. Author/Source: Shaanxi Chemical. Date: May 16, 2022. Clicks: 1. Recently, the BDO production plant took advantage of a system maintenance opportunity to successfully carry out efficiency improvement upgrades on the second-phase pressure swing adsorption unit. Since the upgrades were implemented, various operational performance indicators have remained stable, and the operational bottlenecks associated with the second-phase pressure swing adsorption unit are expected to be completely resolved. It is reported that the second-stage pressure swing adsorption unit purifies the refined gas, whose hydrogen purity in coal chemical processes is around 94%, to over 99.50%, so as to use it as feed gas for hydrogenation units; it is one of the main production units in the BDO plant. Over the past two years, as the overall operating load of BDO units has gradually increased, the gas processing capacity and the quality of the product gas produced by pressure swing adsorption have become insufficient, affecting the stable operation of the entire system under high loads. This efficiency improvement upgrade is aimed at addressing the operational bottlenecks of this device, thereby increasing its hydrogen processing capacity and the quality of the product gas. 11 of the adsorption towers were replaced, eliminating potential safety hazards in the system’s operation ； High-efficiency adsorbents have been installed in all adsorption towers and the pretreatment towers, improving the adsorption efficiency ； The operating program of the device was upgraded, with the original \"14-1-10\" program replaced by the \"14-2-7\" program; at the same time, some related pressure equalization pipelines were replaced, which improved the system’s operational flexibility and hydrogen recovery rate. With the careful planning and active cooperation of the branch factory and relevant departments of the company, all efficiency-improving renovation tasks were completed successfully on schedule. Production data after commissioning show that the hydrogen processing capacity of pressure swing adsorption has increased by about 20% compared to before, and the purity as well as the levels of trace substances in the product gas have become more stable. The goal of using pressure swing adsorption to supply two hydrogenation units was successfully achieved; under the same production load, the consumption of refined gas decreased by 500–700 Nm3. This also improved the operational flexibility in terms of process control and the quality of the produced hydrogen, providing a solid foundation for further improvements in the efficiency and quality of the BDO production unit.