Laboratory-Scale Pressure-Swing Adsorption Parametric Study: R113 on BPL Carbon   [open pdf - 787KB]

The U.S. Army Edgewood Research, Development and Engineering Center is investigating the pressure-wing adsorption (PSA) as a potential advanced technology approach for regenerable collective protection in military vehicles required to operate in chemical/biological warfare theaters. Experiments to test the filtration performance of a laboratory-scale PSA system have been performed by adding 1,1,2-trifluoro-1,2,2-trichloroethane (R113) to feed air-stream and monitoring the purge-and product-stream, R113 concentrations, as the challenge proceeds. In addition, in-bed probes have been utilized to monitor the R113 concentration at 5 cm intervals along the length of the PSA bed during each experiment. The data resulting from these experiments have been used to derive PSA performance-prediction models that will assist in the design and validation of PSA-based collective protection systems for various military applications.