Numerical simulation of a pressure swing air separation systemndasha comparative study of finite difference and collocation methods

The efficiency of three different numerical methods (single and double collocation and 3‐point central finite difference) is compared for the solution of the set of partial differential equations describing the performance of a pressure swing adsorption (PSA) system for air separation on a carbon molecular sieve. It is shown that in terms of computer time there is little difference between single and double collocation methods but for comparable accuracy both these methods are very much faster than the finite difference method.