NEWTEK's Research On Small Two-tower Pressure Swing Adsorption Oxygen Generator Has Made A Major Breakthrough

NEWTEK's research on small two-tower pressure swing adsorption oxygen generator has made a major breakthrough

Recently, the research team of NEWTEK has conducted in-depth research in the field of small two-tower pressure swing adsorption oxygen generators and achieved a series of key and groundbreaking results, injecting strong impetus into the development of oxygen production technology.
In the development process of oxygen production technology, the traditional pressure swing adsorption (PSA) cycle has always had shortcomings in product gas concentration and recovery rate. In comparison, rapid pressure swing adsorption (RPSA) technology stands out with its advantages such as short cycle and small amount of adsorbent required per unit gas output. NEWTEK keenly captured this technical highlight and invested in the research and development of small oxygen generators based on the RPSA principle. The small oxygen generator equipment developed by it has a simple and exquisite structure, outstanding operating stability, large oxygen output and purity that can be flexibly adjusted according to different needs. It has shown excellent applicability in many fields such as home health care, medical treatment, and plateau oxygen supply, and quickly gained market favor.



NEWTEK's scientific research elites know that if they want their products to continue to lead the industry, accurate and in-depth research is indispensable. They constructed a precise mathematical model of the PSA process and used cutting-edge numerical methods to simulate the actual oxygen production process. This method can not only accurately calculate the data that is difficult to obtain in the experiment, but also open up an efficient path for the optimization and upgrading of the oxygen production device. Looking around the world, although many researchers have actively explored this field before, most simulations only focus on a single adsorption tower, and do not take into account key auxiliary equipment such as air compressors and buffer tanks, which limits the research results.

The NEWTEK team took a different approach and innovated boldly. Simulating different altitude scenes in the low-pressure cabin, the micro-pressure swing adsorption device was carefully designed and built. The height of a single tower was accurately controlled at only 339mm, and the shortest time sequence was 9.6s, which perfectly combined the miniaturization of the equipment with high efficiency. The core components of oxygen production use LiLSX lithium-type medical molecular sieves produced by CECA in France as adsorbents, which ensure the quality of oxygen production with its excellent adsorption performance. At the same time, a rigorous and scientific process flow was established: the air is first purified layer by layer, then compressed and cooled, and then precisely controlled by the solenoid valve to enter the adsorption bed for adsorption separation; part of the separated product gas smoothly enters the oxygen storage tank, ready to provide pure oxygen to users at any time, and the other part is cleverly backwashed to clean the other adsorption bed, helping the adsorbent to regenerate efficiently, and the nitrogen-rich gas after desorption is discharged in an orderly manner. The pressure equalization step cleverly achieves the pressure balance between the two towers to ensure the continuous and stable operation of the oxygen production process.

With the help of professional Aspen Adsorption software and the central difference method 1 (UDS1) discrete method, the NEWTEK research team has ingeniously constructed a mathematical model of the adsorption bed covering multiple dimensions such as mass, heat, and momentum conservation, and boldly made reasonable assumptions such as the ideal gas state equation based on actual conditions, successfully simplified the simulation process, and accurately determined various key parameters such as adsorbents, adsorption beds, and boundary conditions, laying a solid foundation for subsequent precise research and product optimization.

The simulation and experimental results are exciting, and the two are highly consistent. The maximum relative error between the simulated value of the product oxygen concentration and the experimental measured value is only 5.5%, which strongly verifies the accuracy and reliability of the mathematical model. This means that the two-tower pressure swing adsorption oxygen production process independently developed by NEWTEK is already mature and can fully meet the stringent requirements of small-scale oxygen generators for home or military use. Taking the actual application scenario as an example, at an altitude of 3000m, a tower height of 339mm, an adsorption time precisely controlled at 7s, and an air feed flow rate of 5.00L・min⁻¹, the product oxygen purity can be as high as 94.00%, and the yield is stable at 41.59%, providing a high level of oxygen guarantee for users in different environments.

During the in-depth investigation, the NEWTEK team further revealed the key factors that affect the oxygen production effect: different altitudes have a significant impact on oxygen production. As the altitude increases, the atmospheric pressure decreases, the feed amount decreases, the adsorption pressure and adsorption amount decline accordingly, and the oxygen purity decreases, but the yield increases. For example, from 2000m to 5000m, the purity decreases by about 10%, while the yield increases by about 13%. In addition, in high-altitude areas, appropriately extending the adsorption time can obtain high-quality oxygen with a purity of 93%, and the yield can be increased by about 14%. The adsorption time is directly related to the quality of the product gas. If it is too short, the adsorbent is not fully utilized. If it is too long, it is easy to cause nitrogen penetration problems, which greatly reduces the quality of the product gas. For example, at an altitude of 3000m and a flushing hole diameter of 0.9mm, the adsorption time is accurately set to 7s, the oxygen purity and yield of the product gas can reach the best balance; the flushing hole diameter should not be underestimated. Its size directly affects the amount of flushing gas, the regeneration effect of the adsorbent and the yield of the product gas. If the diameter is too small, the desorption and regeneration effect is poor. If it is too large, the product gas will be over-consumed, resulting in a decline in both purity and yield. For example, at an altitude of 5000m and an adsorption time of 9s, the flushing hole diameter is optimized to 0.8mm, and the oxygen purity of the product gas can reach 92.95%, and the yield is 48.90%. The study found that the higher the altitude, the smaller the optimal flushing hole diameter.


With its outstanding research results on the small two-tower pressure swing adsorption oxygen generator, NEWTEK once again demonstrated its profound foundation and strong innovation capabilities in the field of gas treatment technology. In the future, NEWTEK will continue to deepen its efforts, contribute to the improvement of the health and quality of life of global users with more advanced technology and higher-quality products, and lead the oxygen production industry to a new peak.