Patent ID: 7473299

Claim:
A method for producing an oxygen-rich product gas comprising (a) providing a primary gas mover including a first compressor for compressing atmospheric air to provide pressurized feed air and a second compressor adapted to compress an oxygen-depleted waste gas from subatmospheric pressure to atmospheric pressure, a drive motor for driving the first and second compressors, and a rechargeable battery for providing power to the drive motor, wherein the rechargeable power supply is characterized by an operating run time between maximum and minimum working charge; (b) providing a pressure/vacuum swing adsorption system adapted to separate the pressurized feed air into the oxygen-rich product gas and the oxygen-depleted waste gas, wherein the adsorption system comprises a plurality of adsorber beds containing adsorbent; and (c) operating each of the adsorber beds in turn through an adsorption cycle including at least the repeating steps of feed/provide product, depressurization, evacuation, and repressurization; wherein the method is characterized by any of the operating parameters (1) the rechargeable battery provides between 0.02 and 0.17 KWh of power during the operating run time between maximum and minimum working charge; (2) the total working capacity of the adsorbent in each adsorber bed during the adsorption cycle is between 1.2×10 −4 and 6.7×10 −4 lbmoles of nitrogen; (3) the first compressor moves between 1.14×10 −4 and 4.01×10 −4 lbmoles of pressurized feed air during the feed/provide product step; and (4) the second compressor moves between 3.47×10 −4 and 9.96×10 −4 lbmoles of waste gas during the depressurization and evacuation steps.