Vacuum Exhaust Process in Pilot-Scale Vacuum Pressure Swing Adsorption for Coal Mine Ventilation Air Methane Enrichment

Xiong Yang, Yingshu Liu, Ziyi Li, Chuanzhao Zhang and Yi Xing
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Xiong Yang: School of Energy and Environmental Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
Yingshu Liu: School of Energy and Environmental Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
Ziyi Li: School of Energy and Environmental Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
Chuanzhao Zhang: College of Biochemical Engineering, Beijing Union University, Beijing 100023, China
Yi Xing: School of Energy and Environmental Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China

Energies, 2018, vol. 11, issue 5, 1-13

Abstract: Recovery and treatment of methane from coal mine ventilation air methane (VAM) with cost-effective technologies have been an ongoing challenge due to low methane concentrations. In this study, a type of coconut shell-based active carbon was employed to enrich VAM with a three-bed vacuum pressure swing adsorption unit. A new vacuum exhaust step for the VPSA process was introduced. The results show that the vacuum exhaust step can increase the methane concentration of the product without changing adsorption and desorption pressure. Under laboratory conditions, the concentration of product increased from 0.4% to 0.69% as the vacuum exhaust ratio increased from 0 to 3.1 when the feed gas concentration was 0.2%. A 500 m³/h pilot-scale test system for VAM enrichment was built rendering good correlation with the laboratory results in terms of the vacuum exhaust step. By using a two-stage three-bed separation unit, the VAM was enriched from 0.2% to over 1.2%.

Keywords: vacuum exhaust; vacuum pressure swing adsorption (VPSA); ventilation air methane (VAM); enrichment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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