METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SEPARATING HYDROGEN GAS

摘要

A method of separating hydrogen gas in which a hydrogen-containing gaseou s mixture is treated by the pressure swing adsorption method with adsorption columns (A), (B), and (C) packed with adsorbents, in order to separate hydr ogen gas from the gaseous mixture. The method comprises repetitions of a cyc le comprising: an adsorption step in which a gaseous mixture is introduced i nto an adsorption column to adsorb an unnecessary gas contained in the gaseo us mixture onto the adsorbents and a product gas having a high hydrogen conc entration is discharged from the adsorption column; and a desorption step in which the unnecessary gas is desorbed from the adsorbents and desorbed gase s comprising a gas remaining in the adsorption column and the unnecessary ga s are discharged from the adsorption column. The adsorbents comprise a first adsorbent (D), which is an activated-carbon adsorbent located upstream in t he gaseous-mixture flow direction in the adsorption column, and a second ads orbent (E), which is a zeolite adsorbent located downstream in the flow dire ction, the proportions of packing with the first and second adsorbents being 60-80% and 40-20%, respectively.