Method for producing oxygen via O2 VSA, minimizing valve openings and closings

A method for producing oxygen from air using vacuum swing adsorption by means of a unit comprising at least a first adsorber and a second adsorber each following, with an offset

• a pressure cycle comprising,
• a decompression step, comprising a decompression rate,
• a purge step, and
• a recompression step,
• with the decompression step of the first adsorber comprising at least a co-current first decompression sub-step for the partial balancing of pressure with the second adsorber which is performing counter-current recompression by means of a balancing valve, and,
• at least for one cycle out of three, a dead time sub-step which succeeds the first decompression sub-step, and further comprising:
• providing a first pressure at the end of the first decompression sub-step for the cycles that do not have a dead time sub-step, and
• providing the first pressure at the end of the dead time sub-step, opening the balancing valve identically during the first decompression sub-step and the dead time sub-step, for the cycles that do have a dead time sub-step.