Patent ID: 7255727

Claim:
A method for treating at least one feed gas by adsorption, of the type in which a pressure swing adsorption treatment unit is used and in which said treatment unit is made to follow a nominal operating cycle defined according to nominal operating conditions and for the purpose of guaranteeing minimum feed gas treatment performance levels, wherein: a) at least one preprogrammed auxiliary operating cycle, different from the nominal cycle, is used; b) when the operating conditions differ from the nominal conditions to the point that the treatment unit no longer achieves its minimum performance levels, the treatment unit is made to follow the at least one auxiliary cycle; c) the nominal operating cycle is identified by a triplet X.Y.Z, where X denotes the number of active adsorbers of the treatment unit, Y denotes the number of adsorbers in simultaneous adsorption and Z denotes the number of pressure balancing steps carried out on said nominal cycle; and d) at least one of the number X′ of active adsorbers, of the number Y′ of adsorbers in simultaneous adsorption and of the number Z′ of pressure balancing steps carried out on each of the at least one auxiliary cycles is different from the corresponding number of the nominal cycle.