Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) Oxygen Plants 

Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) Oxygen Plants 

Part of: GS Prelims and GS-II -Policies and interventions & GS – III – Sci & tech

In news

• The Health Ministry said that 162 Pressure Swing Adsorption, PSA oxygen plants have been sanctioned by Government of India for installation in public health facilities in all States and these will augment medical oxygen capacity by over 154 Metric Tonnes.

Important value additions 

• Pressure swing adsorption (PSA) is a technology used to separate some gas species from a mixture of gases under pressure according to the species’ molecular characteristics and affinity for an adsorbent material.
• It operates at near-ambient temperatures and differs significantly from cryogenic distillation techniques of gas separation.
• Specific adsorbent materials (e.g., zeolites, activated carbon, molecular sieves, etc.) are used as a trap, preferentially adsorbing the target gas species at high pressure.
• The process then swings to low pressure to desorb the adsorbed material.