Patent ID: 7390350

Claim:
A method for the separation of a gas mixture comprising: (a) providing a pressure swing adsorption system having a plurality of adsorber vessels, each vessel having an inlet and an outlet; (b) providing a bed of particulate adsorbent material disposed within each adsorber vessel, wherein the adsorbent material is selective for the adsorption of one or more components in the gas mixture, and wherein each bed of adsorbent material is characterized by a bed depth and by an average particle diameter less than about 1.3 mm; and (c) initiating a feed step that comprises introducing the gas mixture into the inlet of the adsorber vessel, passing the gas mixture through the bed of particulate adsorbent material and adsorbing therein one or more components from the gas mixture, and withdrawing a product gas from the outlet of the adsorber vessel; continuing the feed step for a feed time period; and terminating the feed step; wherein the bed depth in feet times a dimensionless ratio of an empty bed residence time to the feed time period is less than about 4, wherein the gas mixture comprises hydrogen and one or more components selected from the group consisting of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen, oxygen, argon, hydrocarbons containing one to 12 carbon atoms, hydrogen sulfide, carbonyl sulfide, and water, and wherein the product gas is high-purity hydrogen containing at least 99 vol % hydrogen.