在过去十年中，从煤炭和生物质气化，水力压裂和煤层气等多种来源得到的甲烷气体需要净化。提升甲烷气体质量的需求也有所增加。在所有可用于清洁CH4的技术中，PSA（变压吸附）和VSA（真空吸附吸附）提供了许多简单和经济的优点，特别是对于其他分离技术太昂贵或不可能应用的远程和小规模操作。
对于不同来源获得的气体必须升级为管道气质量的气体，这意味着CO2和N2摩尔浓度需要低于2.5％。传统上，沸石和活性炭一直是CH4升级的首选吸附剂，但随着分子门（2），金属有机骨架（MOFs）和（COFs）（5）的发现，可用于CH4净化的吸附剂已显着增加，并且需要在PSA工艺条件下测试这些材料。
       为了筛选适用于CH4净化的吸附剂，设计和构造了全自动双床PSA / VSA，其允许小的吸附床和流动，压力温度和循环时间的实验参数的灵活性。通过使用商业13-X分子筛吸附剂从CH 4流中分离N 2和CO 2来证明该系统的性能。还将介绍压力，温度，循环时间，吹扫和真空对分离效率的影响。

The need to upgrade the quality of CH4 from diverse sources including coal and biomass gasification, hydraulic fracturing and coal-bed methane has increased in the last 10 years. Among the techniques available for cleaning CH4, PSA (Pressure Swing Adsorption) and VSA(Vacuum Swing Adsorption) offer many advantages among them simplicity  and economy, especially for remote  and small scale operations where other separation techniques are either too costly or impossible to apply.

The gas obtained for the different sources must be upgraded to pipeline quality gas which implies CO2 and N2 molar concentrations below 2.5% .

Traditionally zeolites and activated carbons had been the adsorbent of choice for CH4 upgrading but with the discovery of Molecular Gates (2) , metal organic frameworks(MOFs)(3,4)and covalent organic frameworks(COFs)(5), the number of possible adsorbents for CH4 upgrading has substantially increased and with it the need to test these materials under PSA process conditions.

  For the purpose of screening adsorbents suitable for CH4 remediation, a fully automated dual bed PSA/VSA was designed and constructed that allows for small adsorbent beds and flexibility of experimental parameters of flow, pressure temperature and cycle times. The system’s performance will be demonstrated by the separation of N2 and CO2 from a CH4 stream using a commercial 13-X zeolite adsorbent. The effects of pressure, temperature, cycle time, purge and vacuum on the separation efficiency will be also presented.

The Model PSA-300LC Testing Instrument offers L&C’s unique hardware configuration and proprietary software which simplify all levels of gas separation studies for “small sample size” materials evaluations. Fully automated testing protocols are provided, enabling the researcher to effectively and efficiently explore the complex “experimental matrix” of PSA studies…and for VSA work when used with optional vacuum pump.

This PSA test instrument handles materials evaluations for activated carbons, zeolites, metal organic frameworks (MOFs), molecular sieve materials and more… and is especially effective for mixed-bed testing applications and the study of adsorbate poisoning and critical time-cycling.

System design and materials of construction permit the evaluation of all types of gases and adsorbate materials for chemical, petrochemical, gas purification and energy-related applications in academic, industrial and government R&D laboratory settings.

美国L&C公司提供的PSA-300LC具有独特的硬件配置和专有软件，仪器简化了“小容量”材料评估的所有级别的气体分离研究。 提供全自动测试协议，使研究人员能够有效和高效地探索PSA研究的复杂“实验矩阵”......以及与可选真空泵一起使用时的VSA工作。

该仪器可对活性炭，沸石，金属有机骨架（MOF），分子筛等材料评估。并对混合床测试应用以及吸附质中毒和时间循环的研究尤其有效。

系统设计和结构材料允许评估学术，工业和政府研发实验室环境中用于化学，石化，气体净化和能源相关应用的所有类型的气体和吸附材料。