Reference articles on history, science, culture and more
Encyclopedia

Gas separation

Techniques to provide multiple products or purify a product

Gas separation can refer to any of a number of techniques used to separate gases, either to give multiple products or to purify a single product.

01Swing adsorption techniques

Pressure swing adsorption

Pressure swing adsorption (PSA) pressurizes and depressurizes a multicomponent gas around an adsorbent medium to selectively adsorb some components of a gas while leaving other components free-flowing.

Vacuum swing adsorption

Vacuum swing adsorption (VSA) uses the same principle as PSA but swings between vacuum pressures and atmospheric pressure. PSA and VSA techniques may be combined and are called "vacuum pressure swing adsorption" (VPSA) in this case.

Temperature swing adsorption

Temperature swing adsorption (TSA) is similar to other swing adsorption techniques but cycles the temperature of the adsorbent bed-gas system instead of the gas pressure to achieve separation.

02Cryogenic distillation

Cryogenic distillation is typically only used for very high volumes because of its nonlinear cost-scale relationship, which makes the process more economical at larger scales. Because of this it is typically only used for air separation.

Watch videos about Gas separationExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Gas separation, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

Fathomly is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Wikimedia Foundation. Spotted a problem? Tell us.