An oxygen concentrator is provided with a controller for recovering an oxygen concentration to a level suitable for treatment in a short period of time by selecting an optimum purge time corresponding to the deterioration state of an adsorbent. The judgment of moisture-absorption deterioration is performed when the detected value of the oxygen concentration sensor is equal to or less than a control value of the oxygen concentration in the oxygen-enriched gas and the detected value of the pressure sensor is equal to or more than an adsorption pressure at which the oxygen concentration increases significantly before and after the control to reduce the purge time, and control of reducing a time for the purge step shorter than a preset time is performed.

A method for adjusting a gas stream separation unit having N adsorbers, where N≥2, each following a PSA, VSA or VPSA adsorption cycle, with a time lag of a phase time, said adjustment method including continuously measuring a physical parameter associated with the gas stream entering and/or leaving the adsorber; for at least one step of the adsorption cycle, determining at least one characteristic value of the step chosen in step a) which is selected from the values of the physical parameter measured in step a) or a function of those values; comparing this characteristic value with a target value; and modifying the flow of the gas stream in order to obtain the target value, in the event of a variation between the value of this (these) difference(s) and the target values.

The present invention relates to a method and system for improving VPSA plant energy and capital efficiency through optimizing direct drive variable speed centrifugal feed, vacuum, and/or product compressors to achieve lower unit gas product production cost. More specifically, the present invention relates to a new energy efficient VPSA process and system which employs high speed direct drive centrifugal compressors to achieve wider production range. Significant lower energy consumption can be achieved over the plant operation life by employing compressors sized with average ambient and production demand, utilizing direct drive variable high speed centrifugal compressors' speed and operating range to meet the desired production demand. Since majority of the plants tend to run at below peak production most of operating life of the plant. In addition, the smaller size machine offers plant capital savings from the initial investment.

In order to acquire patient respiratory information during oxygen concentrator operation, it is necessary to separate patient respiration components and variable pressure components associated with PSA from the measured data of the patient respiration pressure. Provided is a respiratory information acquisition device which acquires respiratory information of a patient and which is used fora PSA-type oxygen concentrator, including a pressure detection unit for detecting pressure in conduit and/or a flow rate detection unit for detecting a gas flow rate in the conduit, and a calculation unit for extracting oxygen respiratory information from detected pressure data and/or flow rate data, wherein the calculation unit estimates a fluctuation component which does not depend on respiration of the patient based on detected data and information related to an operation state of the oxygen concentrator obtained from the oxygen concentrator, and extracts respiratory information by removing the fluctuation component estimated from the detected pressure data and/or the flow rate data.

The invention relates to a method for managing a PSA unit having at least N adsorbers arranged in pairs, where each pair is designed to be able to be selectively isolated, a control device, and a plurality of interfaces for accessing instrumentation means of each adsorber, When a first pair is fluidically isolated, the first pair having a first and a second adsorber, the isolating of a third adsorber includes setting the control device to control N-4 adsorbers, fluidically isolating a second pair having the third and a fourth adsorber, isolating one of the first and second adsorbers and the third adsorber, configuring the interfaces so as to swap over the instrumentation means of the other of the first and second adsorbers and the instrumentation means of the fourth adsorber, placing the first and second pairs in fluidic communication, and setting the control device to control N-2 adsorbers.

The disclosure relates to an activated carbon scrubber apparatus 300 and a method of its operation for carbon dioxide (CO.sub.2) removal from a controlled environment. The scrubber apparatus is configured to switch between: an adsorption configuration in which it is configured to provide CO.sub.2-rich gas from the controlled environment to a sorbent bed 302 comprising activated carbon for CO.sub.2 adsorption, and to return the treated gas to the controlled environment; and a regeneration configuration in which it is configured to provide a regenerating gas from outside of the controlled environment to the sorbent bed to desorb CO.sub.2 and regenerate the activated carbon, and to discharge CO.sub.2-rich gas outside of the controlled environment. The method comprises alternately operating the scrubber apparatus in the adsorption configuration and the regeneration configuration over a plurality of cycles, wherein the scrubber apparatus is operated at a cycle frequency of between 4 and 30 cycles per hour. A heater 303 is controlled to heat the sorbent bed in the regeneration configuration.

A monitoring and control system of a molecular sieve oxygen plant generator comprising a PLC controller installed in an oxygen generator, which in turn is connected with an oxygen generator and an air storage tank. The system allows the generation of oxygen in situ and the control and monitoring is remotely controlled. The system comprises artificial intelligence for the monitoring, control and fault self-diagnosis.

A pressure swing adsorption type hydrogen manufacturing apparatus includes a process control unit that controls operation of adsorption towers that generate a product gas by adsorbing, using adsorbents, adsorption target components other than hydrogen components from a source gas, in a state where an adsorption process, a pressure-equalization discharge process, a desorption process, and a pressure-restoration process are successively repeated. The process control unit is configured to control operation of the adsorption towers in such a manner that a prior pressure-equalization process is performed in an initial stage of a unit processing period, a subsequent pressure-equalization process is performed in a final stage of the unit processing period, a pressurization process of introducing a product gas to perform pressurization is performed, as the pressure-restoration process, subsequently to the prior pressure-equalization process, and the pressurization process is performed while overlapping with the subsequent pressure-equalization process.

A process for regulating a unit for the production of oxygen from atmospheric air comprising N adsorbers (, N being = or >2, each according to a PSA, VSA or VPSA adsorption cycle with an offset of a phase time, the regulation process including determining a value of differential pressure characteristic of a step of the adsorption cycle for each adsorber, calculating the difference between the values of differential pressures characteristic of the various adsorbers, comparing this difference with a target value and, in the event of a dissimilarity being noted, correcting by modification of the transfer of at least one oxygen-rich gas stream between adsorbers or optionally between adsorber and storage tank.

A hydrogen gas supply apparatus according to one aspect of the present invention includes a compressor configured to compress hydrogen gas and supply the hydrogen gas compressed to a pressure accumulator which accumulates the hydrogen gas, an adsorption column disposed between the discharge port of the compressor and the pressure accumulator, and configured to include an adsorbent for adsorbing impurities in the hydrogen gas discharged from the compressor, and a plurality of valves disposed at the gas inlet/outlet port side of the adsorption column, being at a discharge port side of the compressor, and configured to be able to seal the adsorption column, wherein the space in the adsorption column is sealed using the plurality of valves such that the inside of the adsorption column is maintained to have a high pressure by the hydrogen gas compressed in the case where the compressor is stopped.