JPH04284812A - Method for enriching oxygen in air and device therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a method and device for enriching oxygen in the air having simple construction and good space efficiency. CONSTITUTION:While a treatment drum including therein a bundle of a large number of adsorption chambers extending parallelly in the axial direction is being rotated, air is supplied at ambient temperatures into the drum from an air feed part which is fixedly provided corresponding to a part of an end side of said drum. On the other hand, from a regeneration gas feed part which is fixedly provided corresponding to an location not overlapping said air feed part on the other side of the drum, heated regeneration gas is fed into the drum so that nitrogen in the air is adsorbed on adsorbents. As a result, oxygen enriched gas which gas been enriched with oxygen, as non-adsorption gas, can be continuously obtained.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for enriching oxygen in air.

0002

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Hitherto, a so-called cryogenic separation method has been known as a method for separating specific component gases in the air, such as separating oxygen from the air. According to this method, highly pure oxygen can be obtained, but
Its economic scale is limited to mass production and mass consumption of several tens of tons per day.

[0003] In recent years, the so-called pressure swing gas adsorption method (PSA method) has been developed as an alternative technology, and is often used in the refining field, such as electric furnaces and converters, when relatively high oxygen concentrations are required. It is being This PSA method requires multiple adsorption tanks filled with adsorbent, numerous switching valves for alternately switching these adsorption tanks between pressurized adsorption mode and reduced pressure regeneration mode, a gas cooler, a receiver, a pressurizing device, etc. It is necessary to construct a complicated device consisting of a large number of valves, and its operation requires complicated operations such as switching the above-mentioned large number of valves in accordance with the passage of time.

By the way, in fields such as refining and melt cutting, a relatively high concentration of oxygen is required, and the separation of oxygen by the above-mentioned PSA method is suitable for this purpose, but it is also possible to improve the combustion efficiency of a combustion furnace, aeration treatment, etc. In areas such as improving water treatment efficiency and bioindustry-related fields, very high concentrations of oxygen are not required, so the high concentration oxygen obtained by the PSA method is purposely diluted with air to provide oxygen-containing air for such applications. This meant that I had to add unnecessary operations to use it.

[0005] It should be noted that the oxygen concentration in the air is 5% to 10%.
As a method for increasing oxygen enrichment, for example, a method described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2-44571 has been proposed. The method described in this publication involves arranging a plurality of adsorbent-filled chambers filled with an adsorbent for oxygen adsorption in an annular manner, circulating these adsorbent-filled chambers along a circular path, and Air is supplied to one end of the adsorbent-filled chamber that reaches the gas supply section arrangement area from a gas supply section arranged along the annular path, and oxygen is adsorbed to the adsorbent in the adsorbent-filled chamber. A heated desorption gas is supplied from a desorption gas supply section provided at a location different from the above gas supply section to one end of the supply agent filling chamber that reaches the desorption gas supply section arrangement area, and is thereby adsorbed by the adsorbent. The method involves stripping oxygen to obtain oxygen-enriched gas.

However, the conventional oxygen enrichment method described in the above publication has the following problems. First, a mechanism is required to support and rotate a plurality of adsorbent-filled chambers arranged in a ring, and this mechanism itself is extremely complex and large-scale. Therefore, the cost increases accordingly.

Second, in order to increase the processing efficiency, it is necessary to increase the number of adsorbent-filled chambers arranged in a ring, but in this case, the diameter of the ring in which a plurality of adsorbent-filled chambers are arranged becomes smaller. As the number of devices increases, the equipment becomes more extensive.
Space efficiency decreases.

Thirdly, in both the gas supply section and the desorption gas supply section, the adsorbent filling chamber reaches the area where these supply sections are provided, and the gas flow path is connected to each adsorbent filling chamber. Since adsorption or desorption operations are performed only at points coincident with the inlet or outlet of the chamber, the final discharged oxygen-enriched gas does not have a uniform concentration and flow rate. Therefore, although the method described in the above-mentioned publication appears to be able to continuously enrich oxygen, strictly speaking, it is not possible to obtain oxygen-enriched gas with a uniform concentration and a uniform flow rate. This only increases the average oxygen concentration of the exhaust gas.

The present invention was devised under the above circumstances, and provides a method and device that can continuously enrich oxygen in the air with a simpler configuration and operation. Its task is to provide.

0010

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to solve the above problems, the present invention employs the following technical means. first,
The method for enriching oxygen in the air described in claim 1 of the present application includes:
A processing drum is partitioned into a large number of adsorption chambers by partition walls in a cross section, and the ends of each of the adsorption chambers are open at both ends, and each adsorption chamber has an adsorbent for adsorbing nitrogen. It includes rotating and successively performing the following operations: a) Air is supplied into the processing drum from an air supply section fixedly provided corresponding to a part of one end surface of the processing drum, and oxygen is enriched from the other end of the processing drum as a non-adsorbed gas. a) a first operation of generating heated gas from a regeneration gas supply section provided in a constant shape on the other end surface of the processing drum, corresponding to a part that does not overlap in the drum axial direction with the air supply section; a second operation of supplying regeneration gas into the treatment drum, thereby regenerating the adsorption chamber after the first operation;

The method described in claim 2 of the present application further includes the following operations in addition to the method described in claim 1. c) At the other end surface of the processing drum, from a cooling gas supply section provided in a fixed manner corresponding to a portion that does not overlap with the air supply section in the drum axial direction and is offset in the direction opposite to the drum rotation direction. , a third operation of supplying a cooling gas into the processing drum, thereby cooling the adsorption chamber before the first operation.

The adsorbent to be present in the adsorption chamber is as follows:
For example, 5A type or 13X type zeolite is used as a material capable of adsorbing nitrogen at room temperature. The adsorbent may be present in the adsorption chamber by filling the adsorption chamber space partitioned by a partition with the adsorbent in the form of granules (Claim 3); The agent may be carried in the form of granules or powder on the surface of the partition wall that partitions the adsorption chamber (claim 4), or the partition wall that partitions the adsorption chamber itself may be formed by molding the adsorbent with a binder. (Claim 5).

As mentioned above, the 5A type or 13X type zeolite adsorbs nitrogen in the air, lowers the nitrogen ratio in the air, and as a result, plays the role of increasing the oxygen ratio. Therefore, the first operation of adsorbing nitrogen in the air is preferably carried out at a relatively low temperature, that is, below 40°C. Conversely, the second operation for regenerating the adsorbent in which nitrogen has been adsorbed in the first operation is performed at a relatively high temperature of 60° C. or higher. Note that this second operation is performed at a temperature of 60°C or higher, preferably 100°C. (Claim 6)

[0014] Furthermore, when the third operation of cooling the adsorption chamber is performed before the first operation as in the method described in claim 2, the above regeneration operation is performed at a temperature of 60°C or higher. Above, this cooling operation is performed at a temperature lower than 60°C (Claim 7)
.

Next, the apparatus for enriching oxygen in air according to claim 8 is partitioned into a large number of adsorption chambers by partition walls in a cross section, and the ends of each of the adsorption chambers are opened at both ends, and An adsorbent for adsorbing nitrogen is present in each adsorption chamber, and a processing drum is provided that is rotated around its axis, and a processing drum is provided in a fixed manner corresponding to a part of one end surface of the processing drum, and is arranged in a fixed manner to absorb air into the processing drum. an air supply unit that supplies the inside of the processing drum;
a regeneration gas supply section that is fixedly provided on the other end surface of the processing drum so as to correspond to a portion that does not overlap with the air supply section in the axial direction of the drum, and supplies heated regeneration gas into the processing drum; The processing drum is characterized in that it is configured to continuously obtain oxygen-enriched air enriched with oxygen as a non-adsorbed gas from the other end surface of the processing drum.

The apparatus according to claim 9 is the apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising: on the other end surface of the processing drum, the air supply section does not overlap with the drum axis direction;
A cooling gas supply section is provided, which is fixedly provided in correspondence with a portion that is displaced in a direction opposite to the rotational direction of the drum, and supplies cooling gas into the processing drum.

As the adsorbent to be present in the adsorption chamber, for example, 5A type or 13X type zeolite molecular sieve is used, as described above. This adsorbent may be present by filling each adsorption chamber with a granular adsorbent (claim 10), as described above, or by placing a granular or powdered adsorbent on the inner wall of the adsorption chamber. The adsorbent may be supported (Claim 11), or the partition wall itself that partitions the adsorption chamber may be formed by molding the adsorbent together with the binder (Claim 12).

[0018]

In short, the processing drum in the method or apparatus of the present invention constitutes a bundle of many passage-like adsorption chambers extending parallel to its rotation axis. The bundle of adsorption chambers then revolves around the axis of the processing drum. Focusing on one adsorption chamber, while this adsorption chamber rotates while overlapping with the air supply section,
It receives gas (air) inflow from this air supply section. The nitrogen in the room-temperature air that flows in as described above from one end of this adsorption chamber is adsorbed by the adsorbent present in the adsorption chamber while passing through this adsorption chamber, and then the other end of this adsorption chamber Oxygen-enriched air enriched with oxygen as a non-adsorbed gas is discharged from the exhaust gas.

As described above, since a large number of adsorption chambers are bundled together, there are a plurality of adsorption chambers that rotate to overlap with the air supply section. Therefore, oxygen-enriched air enriched with oxygen as a non-adsorbed gas is continuously discharged from the other end of the processing drum. The adsorption chamber, which has undergone nitrogen adsorption by the adsorbent and the accompanying enrichment of oxygen as a non-adsorbed gas, is
It rotates further, and the other end overlaps with the regeneration gas supply section as it rotates. At this time, the adsorption chamber receives an inflow of heated regeneration gas from the regeneration gas supply section, and this regeneration gas desorbs nitrogen from the adsorbent in the adsorption chamber, and is used to repeatedly circulate the air supply from the air supply section. Be prepared.

[0020] In this way, if we focus on one adsorption chamber,
This adsorption chamber is used for the adsorption of nitrogen in the air flowing in from the air supply section by the adsorbent and the resulting enrichment of oxygen as non-adsorbed gas, and for the adsorption of the adsorbent by the regeneration gas flowing in from the regeneration gas supply section. The reproducing operation is repeatedly performed while the drum rotates around its axis. Since a large number of adsorption chambers are bundled together, one end of the adsorption chambers always rotates while overlapping the air supply section, and therefore, the other end of the processing drum corresponding to the air supply section From this, oxygen-enriched air enriched with oxygen as a non-adsorbed gas is discharged continuously in a substantially uniform concentration.

Furthermore, as in the method according to claim 2, an operation for cooling the adsorption chamber is inserted between the regeneration operation of the adsorption chamber using the regeneration gas and the operation for enriching the non-adsorbed gas with the adsorbent. , the adsorption action of the adsorbent in the above-mentioned oxygen enrichment operation is performed more efficiently, so that the efficiency of oxygen enrichment is further increased.

As described above, according to the method and apparatus for enriching oxygen in air of the present invention, oxygen-enriched air enriched with oxygen at a uniform concentration can be continuously obtained with a simple configuration and at a low cost. be able to. In particular, since the processing drum used in the present invention has a bundle of many adsorption chambers formed over its entire cross-section, space efficiency is extremely high.
Even if the device has a compact configuration as a whole, it has the effect of dramatically increasing the amount of enriched air.

[0023]

[Description of Embodiments] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment of an apparatus for carrying out the present invention. The cylindrical processing drum designated by reference numeral 1 is rotatable around a horizontal central axis, and the inside thereof includes, as shown in detail in FIG. 2 or 3,
In cross section, the adsorption chambers 4 are partitioned into a large number of adsorption chambers 4 by partition walls 2 . The cross section of this processing drum 1 is uniform in the axial direction, so this processing drum 1
has a large number of passages 3 extending parallel to the axial direction.
It will constitute a bundle of... An adsorbent 5 is present in each passage 3, and each functions as an independent adsorption chamber 4. As shown in FIG. 2, a specific method for partitioning the inside of the drum into such adsorption chambers 4 is as follows.
A so-called honeycomb structure may be adopted in which a space with a regular hexagonal cross section is densely packed by partition walls 2, or alternatively, as shown in FIG. good. When the thin tubes 3' are bundled in this way, the gap formed by the cooperation between the inside of the thin tubes 3' and the outer periphery of the thin tubes together form a passage that functions as the adsorption chamber. Furthermore, although not shown, a so-called corrugated structure may also be adopted. It should be noted that the material constituting the processing drum 1 is not limited in any way, and can be formed from any suitable metal or suitable resin.

The average inner diameter of each adsorption chamber 4 may be appropriately set depending on the type of adsorbent to be present inside the adsorption chamber 4, but as will be described later, in order to ensure continuity of processing, it should be as small as possible. is desirable, for example 1 to 5
It may be set appropriately within the range of 0 mm, preferably 5 to 20 mm. Further, the length of the processing drum 1 may be appropriately set depending on the properties or capacity of the adsorbent to be present in the adsorption chamber 4, but the ratio of drum diameter to drum length is in the range of 1:10 to 10:1. can be changed appropriately.

[0025] Inside the adsorption chamber 4, an adsorbent 5 suitable for adsorbing nitrogen at room temperature is present. As an adsorbent for adsorbing such nitrogen, 5A type or 13X type zeolite molecular sieve is suitable. In addition, as a method for making this adsorbent 5 exist in each adsorption chamber 4, as shown in FIG. 2 or 3, the above-mentioned zeolite molecular sieve in the form of granules with a diameter of 1 mm to several mm is used. In addition to being filled with adsorbent, an adsorbent with a smaller particle size may be supported on the inner wall of each adsorption chamber 4 by appropriate adhesive means. Furthermore, the partition wall forming the adsorption chamber 4 itself may be formed by solidifying the adsorbent with a suitable binder and molding it.

As a means for rotating the processing drum 1, for example, as shown in FIG. 1, a rotation drive source 6 such as a motor is provided on the side of the processing drum 1 which is rotatably supported. For example, an endless belt 7 may be placed between the outer periphery of the processing drum 1 and a pulley attached to the output shaft of the rotary drive source 6.

An air supply section 8 is fixedly provided on one end surface of the processing drum 1 so as to cover a portion thereof and supported by a suitable frame (not shown). In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, the air supply section 8 is provided so as to cover a sector-shaped area with a central angle of approximately 200° on one end surface of the processing drum 1. . In this embodiment, a bottomed cylindrical housing having an outer diameter corresponding to the outer diameter of the processing drum 1 is placed so that its opening side faces the outer periphery of one end of the processing drum 1 with an appropriate airtight seal. At the same time, the inner space of the housing 9 is formed by a partition wall 10 extending in the radial direction, so that the central angle is approximately 20 mm.
It is divided into a region with a center angle of 0° and a region with a center angle of about 160°, and the region with a center angle of about 200° is used as the air supply section 8. This air supply section 8 includes a blower 11.
An air flow generated by is introduced via pipe 12 at ambient temperature. It should be noted that a region of the housing 9 having a center angle of 160° is used as a regeneration gas discharge section 13, which will be further described later.

On the other hand, at the other end of the processing drum 1,
A regeneration gas supply section 14 is provided that covers a region that does not overlap the air supply section 8 and the processing drum 1 in the axial direction. In this embodiment, a regeneration gas supply section 14 is provided which has a fan shape with a center angle of about 160 degrees and does not overlap with the fan-shaped air supply section 8 with a center angle of about 200 degrees. To this end, a bottomed cylindrical housing 15 having the same form as the bottomed cylindrical housing provided at one end of the processing drum 1 is fixedly provided at the other end of the processing drum 1, and this housing 15 An area with a central angle of approximately 160°, which is defined by partitioning the internal space of the cylinder 16 by partition walls 16, is used as the regeneration gas supply section 14.

The regeneration gas supply section 14 includes a blower 17.
The air flow generated in is heated by a heater 18 and then introduced through a pipe 19. The heater 18 is preferably constructed as a heat exchanger that utilizes waste heat from a combustion furnace, boiler, or the like.

The center angle of the area other than the regeneration gas supply section 14 in the bottomed cylindrical housing 15 on the other end side of the processing drum 1 is about 2
The sector-shaped area at 00° is used as the outlet 20 for oxygen-enriched air. Note that the air supply section 8 on one end side of the processing drum 1 and the regeneration gas supply section 14 on the other end side are as described above.
In principle, the processing drums 1 are formed so that they do not overlap each other in the axial direction, but in consideration of the gas (air) flow rate passing through the processing drum 1 and the rotational speed of the processing drum 1, It may be slightly displaced in the direction around the axis with respect to the position shown in FIG. 1, and a slightly overlapping portion may be formed.

In the above configuration, while the processing drum 1 is being rotated at a predetermined speed, the processing drum 1 is
While a normal temperature air stream is passed from one end, a heated adsorbent regeneration air stream is passed into the processing drum 1 from the regeneration gas supply section 14 at the other end of the processing drum 1. While the air supplied into the processing drum 1 from the air supply section 8 passes through each adsorption chamber 4, nitrogen is adsorbed by the adsorbent 5, and as a result, nitrogen is absorbed from the other end side discharge section 20 of the processing drum 1. A gas enriched with oxygen as a non-adsorbed gas (oxygen-enriched air) is discharged, and this oxygen-enriched air is sent through the pipe 21 and is used, for example, as a combustion-supporting gas.

The large number of adsorption chambers 4 constituting the processing drum 1 are continuously supplied with air from the air supply section 8 while rotating in correspondence with the fan-shaped air supply section 8 having a central angle of approximately 200°. The above-mentioned oxygen enrichment effect by the adsorbent is performed while receiving the oxygen. Since the area covered by the air supply section 8 is covered with a large number of adsorption chambers 4, a certain amount of air is continuously and efficiently supplied even though the processing drum 1 is rotating. As a result, a sufficient amount of oxygen-enriched air can be continuously produced.

As the processing drum 1 rotates, the adsorption chamber 4 leaves the area covered by the air supply section 8 and reaches the area covered by the regeneration gas supply section. However, it is distributed in the opposite direction. Even in this case, the adsorbent 5 in the above-mentioned adsorption chamber 4 is continuously subjected to the regeneration effect by the heated regeneration air while the adsorbent 5 rotates in a region having a central angle of approximately 160°. That is, the nitrogen adsorbed on the adsorbent in the oxygen enrichment area is desorbed from the adsorbent by contacting the high temperature regeneration air, and as a result, the adsorbent 5 efficiently adsorbs nitrogen again. It is reproduced in such a way that it is possible.

Note that the energy required for desorption of nitrogen is several to several tens of times the theoretical value, taking into account heat loss and heat transfer to areas other than the zeolite molecular sieve. Therefore, the temperature of the heated regeneration gas should be 60°C or higher, preferably 100°C or higher.

Note that the processing drum 1 has a diameter of 350 m.
m, the length is 200 mm, and the adsorption chamber 4 has a honeycomb structure with an average inner diameter of 5 mm, and the adsorption chamber 4 is filled with 12 kg of 5A type zeolite, and
While rotating this processing drum 1 at a speed of 2.2 minutes/rotation, fan-shaped air supply parts 8 to 6 having a central angle of 270° are
When Nm3/H of air is introduced and regeneration air heated to 60°C is introduced from the regeneration gas supply section 14 at a flow rate of 2Nm3/H, 4Nm3 of gas with an oxygen concentration of 30% by volume is released from the gas discharge section 20. /H was obtained.

FIG. 4 shows a second embodiment of the apparatus for carrying out the present invention. The difference in this second embodiment from the example in FIG. 1 is that a part of the oxygen-enriched air is used as regeneration gas, and the rest of the configuration is the same as the first embodiment. It is. In this way, the partial pressure of nitrogen in the regeneration gas is lower than when simply using air as the regeneration gas, so that nitrogen is desorbed from the adsorbent more quickly. However, in this case, the yield of oxygen-enriched air will be reduced by the amount used as regeneration gas.

FIG. 5 shows a third embodiment of an apparatus for carrying out the present invention. In the first and second embodiments described above, the end region of the processing drum 1 is divided into two parts, and one part is used for the oxygen enrichment operation and the other part is used for the adsorbent regeneration operation. In this third embodiment,
The end region of the processing drum 1 is divided into three regions, and while the processing drum 1 rotates, each adsorption chamber 4 is filled with adsorbent after completing the adsorbent regeneration operation region and before entering the oxygen enrichment operation region. The device is configured to undergo a cooling operation.

That is, the bottomed cylindrical housings 9 and 15 provided at both ends of the processing drum 1 are divided into three fan-shaped areas having a predetermined center angle by the partition walls 10 and 16, and Cooling gas is introduced into a third region formed in the bottomed cylindrical housing 15 on the end side. As shown in FIG. 5, part of the oxygen-enriched gas is recycled as the cooling gas. In FIG. 5, reference numeral 22 indicates a gas cooler for cooling the warmed cooling gas discharged from the outlet side of the processing drum 1 again. Further, in this embodiment, a part of the cooled exhaust gas that has undergone the above-mentioned cooling action is used as the regeneration gas, and is heated and used.

Therefore, in this embodiment, the adsorption chamber 4 which has completed the oxygen enrichment operation by nitrogen adsorption undergoes the adsorbent regeneration operation using heated regeneration air, and then is prepared for the oxygen enrichment operation at room temperature. First, the adsorbent is cooled by cooling gas. With this configuration, the nitrogen adsorption effect by the adsorbent is performed more efficiently, which has the effect of further increasing the oxygen enrichment efficiency of the air. Note that the gas temperature for cooling should naturally be lower than the regeneration gas temperature, and should be lower than 60°C.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a first embodiment of an apparatus used to carry out the present invention.

[Figure 2]

FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view of the processing drum.

FIG. 4 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a second embodiment of the apparatus used to carry out the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a third embodiment of an apparatus used to carry out the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Processing drum 4 Adsorption chamber 5 Adsorbent 8 Air supply section 14 Regeneration gas supply section

Claims (12)

[Claims] 1. A processing drum which is partitioned into a large number of adsorption chambers by partition walls in a cross section, the ends of each of the adsorption chambers are open at both ends, and an adsorbent for adsorbing nitrogen is present in each adsorption chamber. A method for enriching oxygen in air, which comprises rotating the air around its axis and continuously performing the following operations. a) Air is supplied into the processing drum from an air supply section fixedly provided corresponding to a part of one end surface of the processing drum, and oxygen is enriched from the other end of the processing drum as a non-adsorbed gas. a) a first operation of generating heated gas from a regeneration gas supply section fixedly provided on the other end surface of the processing drum, corresponding to a part that does not overlap with the air supply section in the axial direction of the drum; a second operation of supplying regeneration gas into the treatment drum, thereby regenerating the adsorption chamber after the first operation; 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the following operations. c) From a cooling gas supply section provided in a fixed manner on the other end surface of the processing drum, corresponding to a part that does not overlap with the air supply section in the drum axial direction and is offset in the direction opposite to the drum rotation direction. , a third operation of supplying a cooling gas into the processing drum, thereby cooling the adsorption chamber before the first operation. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the adsorption chamber is constructed by filling a space partitioned by a partition wall with the adsorbent. 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the adsorption chamber is configured such that the adsorbent is supported on a partition wall that partitions the adsorption chamber. 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the adsorption chamber is constructed by molding and processing the adsorbent into a partition wall itself that partitions the adsorption chamber. 6. Claim 1, wherein the first operation is performed at a temperature of 40°C or lower, and the second operation is performed at a temperature of 60°C or higher.
the method of. 7. The method of claim 2, wherein the first operation is performed at a temperature of 40°C or lower, the second operation is performed at a temperature of 60°C or higher, and the third operation is performed at a temperature lower than 60°C. 8. In a cross section, the adsorption chamber is partitioned into a large number of adsorption chambers by partition walls, the ends of each of the adsorption chambers are open at both ends, and an adsorbent for adsorbing nitrogen is present in each adsorption chamber, and A processing drum that is rotated around an axis; an air supply section that is fixedly provided in correspondence with a part of one end surface of the processing drum and supplies air into the processing drum; and the other end surface of the processing drum. a regeneration gas supply section that is fixedly provided in correspondence with the air supply section and a portion that does not overlap in the axial direction of the drum, and supplies heated regeneration gas into the processing drum; An apparatus for enriching oxygen in air, characterized in that it is configured to continuously obtain oxygen-enriched air enriched with oxygen as a non-adsorbed gas from the other end surface. 9. On the other end surface of the processing drum, a part of the processing drum that does not overlap with the air supply part in the axial direction of the drum and is displaceable in a direction opposite to the rotational direction of the drum is provided in a fixed manner so as to provide cooling gas. 9. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising a cooling gas supply supplying a cooling gas into the processing drum. 10. The apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the adsorption chamber is configured by filling a space partitioned by a partition wall with the adsorbent. 11. The apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the adsorption chamber is configured such that the adsorbent is supported on a partition wall that partitions the adsorption chamber. 12. The apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the adsorption chamber is constructed by molding and processing the adsorbent into a partition wall itself that partitions the adsorption chamber.