Oxygen separator and method of generating oxygen

摘要

The invention relates to an oxygen separation device (12, 14), comprising a gas inlet (29, 31) at a primary side for guiding a flow of oxygen comprising gas into the oxygen separation device (12, 14) and having a gas outlet (33, 35) at a secondary side for guiding a flow of oxygen enriched gas out of the oxygen separation device (12, 14), at least one oxygen separation area (20, 22) with an oxygen separation sorbent (16, 18) being capable of separating oxygen from an oxygen comprising gas by sorbing at least one component of the oxygen comprising gas apart from oxygen and being contaminatable by a contaminant, and a decontamination area (21, 23) with a decontamination material (17, 19) for decontaminating the oxygen comprising gas from at least one contaminant, wherein the oxygen separation area (20, 22) and the decontamination area (21, 23) are fluidly connected by a spacer (76, 78) comprising at least one diffusion reducing channel (80, 82), wherein the spacer (76, 78) has a value of diffusion reduction rR of rR>1. Such an oxygen separation device (12, 14) allows (10) provides significant advantages with respect to maintenance. The invention further relates to an oxygen separator (10) and to a method of generating oxygen from an oxygen comprising gas.

主权项

1. Oxygen separation device, comprising
a gas inlet at a primary side for guiding a flow of oxygen comprising gas into the oxygen separation device and having a gas outlet at a secondary side for guiding a flow of oxygen enriched gas out of the oxygen separation device, at least one oxygen separation area with an oxygen separation sorbent being capable of separating oxygen from an oxygen comprising gas by sorbing at least one component of the oxygen comprising gas apart from oxygen and being contaminatable by a contaminant, and a decontamination area with a decontamination material for decontaminating the oxygen comprising gas from at least one contaminant, wherein the oxygen separation area and the decontamination area are fluidly connected by a spacer comprising at least one diffusion reducing channel, wherein the spacer and the at least one diffusion reducing channel are adapted for reducing diffusion of the at least one contaminant from the decontamination area to the at least one oxygen separation area, and wherein the spacer has a value of diffusion reduction rR of rR>1, wherein the value of diffusion reduction rR is determined by rR=Z*S, wherein Z is a characteristic contaminated length and S is a spacer characteristic parameter, wherein Z is determined by Z=(fW*Az)/Lz, wherein fW is a separation sorbent diffusion correction factor, Az is a cross-sectional area of the oxygen separation area, and Lz is a position of the diffusion reducing channel, and wherein S is determined by S=Ld/(N*Ad), wherein Ld is a length of the individual spacer diffusion reducing channel, N is a number of spacer diffusion reducing channels, and Ad is a cross-sectional area of an individual spacer diffusion reducing channel, so as to reduce diffusion of the at least one contaminant from the decontamination material of the decontamination area to the oxygen separation sorbent of the at least one oxygen separation area.