In recent years, some iron & steel mills in India have equipped vacuum pressure swing adsorption (VPSA) oxygen generation equipment for oxygen-enriched coal injection into blast furnaces to supplement their oxygen shortage. With VPSA oxygen plant’s advantages such as simple process flow, reliable operation, short flexible startup time, fast load regulation, low operating energy consumption, fully automatic control, unattended operation, low investment, and short construction period., etc., VPSA oxygen generation technology helps Indian iron & steel mills to achieve the process optimization and performance improvement, which will help them gain substantial economic benefits.

Beijing Peking University Pioneer Technology Corporation Ltd.’s (PKU Pioneer) VPSA oxygen production process has been applied in industrial areas for over 20 years. Through continuous technical optimization and product iteration, the ultra-large-capacity application of VPSA oxygen generation technology in the iron & steel industry has been realized. The total oxygen generation capacity of VPSA oxygen systems in a single iron & steel mill has reached 87,500Nm3/h, which enables this technology to gain core competitiveness in the international market. Relying on the self-developed high-efficiency oxygen adsorbent, radial-bed adsorbers, excellent equipment performance and professional international business teams, PKU Pioneer has gradually opened up the international market of VPSA oxygen units with numerous successful industrial application cases in Asia, Africa, Europe and America. In India alone, PKU Pioneer has built and put into production over 20 sets of VPSA oxygen generators in the past 5 years, covering various industries including metal smelting and petrochemicals, among which the projects for top iron & steel companies make up the majority. Therefore, PKU Pioneer has accumulated rich experience in the design and service of both VPSA oxygen generation technology and supporting equipment in the overseas oxygen-rich coal injection projects for blast furnaces.

VPSA Oxygen Generating Unit (4100Nm³/h 93%) Built by PKU Pioneer on Qinghai-Tibet Plateau at Altitude of 2800m

For many years, driven by PKU Pioneer, iron and steel companies in India have well recognized the VPSA oxygen equipment for its advantages of excellent performance, high level of automation and diversified customized services.

1. Excellent Performance

Compared with the local traditional cryogenic air separator, VPSA oxygen gas plant is superior in terms of safety, energy consumption, start-up and shut-down time, load regulation, construction period and profits on the investment.

Table 1 Advantages of VPSA Oxygen Unit over Cryogenic Air Separator

2. High Level of Automation

In response to the diel temperature variations and seasonal characteristics in India, during the construction of the first 200TPD VPSA oxygen system for a steel mill in India, after a theoretical analysis on the impact of temperature changes on the oxygen system, according to the equipment composition and operation principles, PKU Pioneer proposed the automatic adjustment control scheme of capacity & purity, which was realized by the PLC control system. Through automatic adjustment of the valve opening and the travel time of each step by comparing the feedback data, a more stable, energy-saving and efficient oxygen source for blast oxygen enrichment is realized by VPSA oxygen generation technology. In the Phase II oxygen generation project of another steel plant, PKU Pioneer added such automatic functions as load regulation, fault removal and temperature control to further improve the automaticity of the oxygen unit and ensure its stable operation.

Table 2 Comparison of Data Before and After the Application of Automatic Adjustment

3. Diversified Services

In addition to conventional design, installation, commissioning, operation and maintenance services for India projects, PKU Pioneer provides oxygen enrichment solutions, overall relocation guidance and remote instruction services as well.

After recent decades of development, VPSA oxygen technology has been very mature. PKU Pioneer's VPSA oxygen equipment has advantages including high efficiency, simple process, easy operation, strong flexibility and high safety with unattended operation allowed. It's a more advanced & economical choice for oxygen generation. Up to now, PKU Pioneer has provided oxygen enrichment solutions for more than 50 iron & steel mills and 40 non-ferrous metal smelters, all of which have reached the required standards and met the customized needs of our customers. PKU Pioneer is the PSA & VPSA oxygen plant manufacturer having the most oxygen units exported and the largest oxygen capacity in China.