Automated driving of PSA

Based on my experience, one-key startup should be feasible; the unit is equipped with a feed control valve and a pressure relief control valve to regulate feed and pressure increase rates, thereby achieving startup through a gradual pressure increase method. However, in actual engineering projects (at least in the several major design firms I’ve worked with in China), it’s not common to design things this way. The main reasons are likely concern over the excessive complexity of the procedures and the difficulty involved in debugging. Additionally, starting up a system with a single button press is a process that takes time, and any abnormalities that occur during this period make it harder to identify and resolve problems promptly. When pressure swing adsorption units are used in many organizations, many operators who have been working there for years still fail to understand their operational process. The main reason for this is the high degree of automation during normal operation, which results in a lack of experience in manual operation; as a consequence, their reaction time when analyzing abnormal situations and dealing with problems is slow. This is also a problem arising from the high level of automation – operators rely too much on the programs and do not strive to understand the principles behind pressure swing adsorption. Moreover, many units mistakenly believe that pressure swing adsorption relies primarily on instruments, without making an effort to learn and understand the underlying process principles. This is a very wrong view; instruments are designed to serve the manufacturing process, and automation programs are also created to fulfill the functions of that process. Personally, I also do not recommend setting the level of automation too high; it is necessary to take into account the skills of the operators and the conditions at the site as a whole, otherwise the results will be counterproductive.

Thank you for the reply. During the operation of a PSA system, once all the necessary external conditions are met, the personnel from the PSA manufacturer drive the system for testing; once a stable state is reached, the entire process is controlled automatically by programs. Starting the system with a single button press does not have the same level of expertise as manual control, and it also takes more time. I’ve never understood how it’s possible to start the car with just one button – the entire tuning process is taken over by the program. Is that not too intelligent?

During debugging, technicians need to figure out various parameters in the program; this requires a lot of time for simulation calculations and online testing, with parameters being optimized repeatedly until the optimal values are obtained. I was once in charge of debugging an automatic ignition program for a heating furnace. Since it involved transferring an existing unit, the debugging process was extremely difficult; it took almost a month to get it working properly. That ignition program allowed for ignition with just one button press, and it automatically carried out tasks such as purging the furnace, adjusting the air flow, and lighting a low-level spark at the spark plug. However, it did not dare to automatically ignite the fire at a higher intensity.