Apparatus for separating oxygen from ambient air

Abstract

An apparatus for separation of gases from ambient air that has at least one separation column with an inlet at a first end and an outlet at a second end, a buffer column having a single inlet at a first end, a vacuum pump, and a valve system that connects the vacuum pump to the outlet at the first end of the separation column, and that connects the outlet at the second end of separation column to the single inlet at the first end of the buffer column.

1 . A method of using a gas separator to separate ambient air to obtain a stream of gas containing at least 86% oxygen, the method comprising the steps:
 1) feeding adjacent ambient air at about 1 atm into a first end of a separation column filled with the adsorbent;   2) drawing oxygen rich gas from a second end of the column;   3) evacuating waste gas from the first end of the column through a vacuum pump to a pressure of less than 1 atm;   4) repeating steps 1 through 3;   wherein the separator containing less than 500 cc of an adsorbent with an isotherm defining its nitrogen capacity as a function of nitrogen partial pressure to selectively remove nitrogen from ambient air that results in oxygen rich air being produced.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the method is performed by a portable gas separator that is battery operated. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  further wherein step 3 is results in a pressure about 0.08 atm at the end of the evacuation of the waste gas. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  wherein as the pressure reaches about 0.3 atm during the evacuating waste gas step, the column is pressurized with oxygen rich gas through the second end to about 0.6 atm, followed by a pressurization of the column with ambient air through the first end to obtain a column pressure of about 1 atm. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4  wherein the separation column is pressurized with oxygen rich gas that is flowing from the second end of the column during the feeding step. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 4  wherein the column is pressurized with oxygen rich gas after the oxygen purity of the oxygen rich gas has been ordered in the column such that the more pure oxygen rich gas from the second end is the last fluid to enter the column during pressurization of the column during the feed step, and the less pure oxygen rich gas from the second end of the column is the first to enter the column during pressurization. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6  wherein the ordering of the oxygen rich gas is performed by utilizing a buffer column filled with an adsorbent having a high nitrogen capacity, the buffer column containing an inlet port on a first end of the column for controlling flow in and out of the buffer column, and thus functioning as a last in/first out (LIFO) buffer for the purity of a separated gas flowing in and out of the inlet port.