Installation Cost of PSA Oxygen Generator Plant and How It Works?

Pressure swing adsorption (PSA) technique is extensively used for generating onsite oxygen. A large number of industries need oxygen for sustaining their manufacturing operations. However, there are only two options for industries. Either they can install PSA oxygen generator for producing oxygen with purity anytime or they can subscribe oxygen cylinders.

However, supply through cylinders is not reliable. It is just as likely that you might not get the supply on time. No business can afford to lose valuable man-hours due supply uncertainty. With PSA plants, you never face supply issues as you can generate as much oxygen as you want.

PSA oxygen generator cost

PSA oxygen generator cost ranges between 10 lakhs to 70 lakhs for capacities ranging from 10m3/hr to 50m3/hr. This is the cost for small to medium scale PSA plants. Most of the industries in the small sector would meet their requirements with 10m3/hr to 50m3/hr capacities. There are even smaller capacities available than this range.

And, for industries needing medium to large scale capacities it is desirable that they opt for cryogenic oxygen plants. Cryogenic distillation technology is ideal for getting higher purity plus it can produce oxygen on a large scale. Moreover, cryogenic air separation plant can generate oxygen and nitrogen simultaneously both in liquid and gaseous form.

How PSA oxygen generator works?

PSA oxygen generator uses a fixed mode of separating oxygen from other gases though zeolites molecular sieve (ZMS). However, the sieve is specifically designed to adsorb nitrogen under pressure while producing oxygen with purity of 93% and above.

PSA process takes atmospheric oxygen and then compresses it. Then, the compressed air, made up of 21% oxygen and 78% nitrogen, passes through a ZEOLITE molecular sieve (ZMS). The process runs on two towers. When one tower is in the adsorption mode the other tower is in regeneration phase via depressurization.

When the 1st tower is pressurized nitrogen is adsorbed in the sieve allowing oxygen to pass through as a product gas. And, when the 2nd tower goes through regeneration by de-pressurization, the adsorbed (nitrogen in our case) is released back into the atmosphere. The process keeps on repeating.