Patent ID: 8449649

Claim:
A method for controlling the startup of a pressure swing adsorption (PSA) assembly that is configured to receive a mixed gas stream and to produce a product hydrogen stream and a byproduct stream therefrom, the method comprising: supplying the mixed gas stream to the PSA assembly; controlling a pressure associated with a portion of the PSA assembly to a setpoint pressure using a flow regulating assembly, wherein the flow regulating assembly is configured to receive the product hydrogen stream from the PSA assembly and to selectively discharge the product hydrogen stream to maintain the pressure associated with the portion of the PSA assembly at the setpoint pressure, and further wherein the flow regulating assembly is in fluid communication with and upstream from an accumulator tank; detecting the pressure associated with the portion of the PSA assembly; performing PSA startup cycling, wherein the PSA startup cycling is initiated responsive to detecting that the pressure associated with the portion of the PSA assembly is at least a threshold PSA assembly pressure; accumulating at least a portion of the product hydrogen stream in the accumulator tank, wherein the accumulating is initiated after the PSA startup cycling is initiated; detecting a pressure associated with the accumulator tank; and ceasing controlling the pressure associated with the portion of the PSA assembly responsive to detecting that the pressure associated with the accumulator tank is at least a threshold accumulator tank pressure.