Adsorption process simulations
Design and optimise in minutes, entirely in the browser.
A simulator built specifically for designing cyclic pressure swing adsorption (PSA) and temperature swing adsorption (TSA). Run to cyclic steady state in minutes.
Why Skarstrom
Everything you need from a process simulator.
01
Built for cyclic adsorption, not flowsheeting
No drag-and-drop canvas to wire up. Define a PSA, VSA, or TSA cycle by specifying its boundary conditions directly — and be running in minutes.
02
Multi-objective optimisation
Purity, recovery, productivity, and specific energy are computed automatically at cyclic steady state. Optimise the trade-offs and read off the Pareto front.
03
Fit model parameters to experimental data
Parameterise models against experimental data and compare simulation to measurement right in the GUI without exporting results to Excel.
04
Web-native, on any device
Runs entirely in the browser. Log in from anywhere. Your licence is never locked to a single machine, and you are always on the latest version.
05
Complex cycles made simple
Purge streams, pressure equalisation, heavy reflux, multi-bed interconnections — design intricate cycles intuitively.
See it run in your browser.
Request accessWorkspace
No install required, simulate in the browser.
Competitors like Aspen Adsorption and gPROMS require desktop applications to be installed, updated and locked to specific devices. Skarstrom is a web-native simulator, using an optimised C++ solver that can run to cyclic steady state in minutes.
Positioning
Where Skarstrom fits.
Adsorption modelling today mostly happens in Aspen Adsorption and gPROMS. Here is how Skarstrom compares on what teams actually feel: speed, cost, and delivery.
| Aspen Adsorption | gPROMS | Skarstrom | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simulation speed | ≈50× slower on the same cycle | ≈5× slower on the same cycle | Fastest — the baseline the others are measured against |
| Cost per licence | Tens of thousands of pounds per seat | Tens of thousands of pounds per seat | Under £1,000 per licence |
| Optimisation & parameterisation | Requires add-ons or external scripting | Requires add-ons or external scripting | Built in — Pareto optimisation and parameter sweeps out of the box |
| Deployment | Desktop install and configuration | Desktop install and configuration | Runs in the browser — nothing to install, always the current version |
| Licensing | Node-locked to a specific machine | Node-locked to a specific machine | Log in from any machine — no hardware-locked licence |
Validation
Benchmarked against eight published studies.
Skarstrom reproduces breakthrough experiments and full cycle results from the peer-reviewed literature. Every study below ships as an example case in the software — open it, run it, and compare against the paper yourself.
Perez, Sarka & Rajendran (2019) CO₂/N₂ vacuum swing adsorption on zeolite 13X Compared: CO₂ purity and recovery at cyclic steady state across six cycle configurations | DOI |
Arora & Hasan (2021) Medical O₂ concentrator on LiLSX zeolite Compared: O₂ purity and recovery for PSA and PVSA Skarstrom cycles | DOI |
Streb & Mazzotti (2021) H₂/CO₂/CH₄ mixtures on zeolite 13X Compared: Multicomponent breakthrough curves | DOI |
Ward & Pini (2022) Dynamic CO₂ breakthrough experiments Compared: Outlet composition and column temperature at three flow rates | DOI |
Nguyen, Shimizu & Rajendran (2023) CO₂/N₂ separation on CALF-20 Compared: Ten VPSA experiments at cyclic steady state | DOI |
Vysyaraju et al. (2024) Helium purification from He/N₂ on zeolite 5A Compared: PSA purification cycles | DOI |
Ward & Pini (2024) CO₂/N₂ PSA on Mg-MOF-74 and activated carbon Compared: PSA cycle with two adsorbents | DOI |
Ferré et al. (2026) Biogas upgrading by single-bed PVSA Compared: Co-production of high-purity CO₂ and CH₄ | DOI |
Applications
One tool for adsorption-based gas separation.
The same column model and cycle engine covers equilibrium- and kinetics-driven separations across pressure, vacuum, and temperature swing operation.
Carbon capture
Post-combustion CO₂ capture with vacuum and temperature swing cycles on zeolites, MOFs, and amine sorbents.
Hydrogen purification
H₂ PSA from reformer off-gas and syngas — multicomponent H₂/CO₂/CH₄/N₂ mixtures on layered beds.
Air separation
O₂ production by PSA and VSA on LiLSX and 5A zeolites, from medical concentrators to on-site generators.
Direct air capture
Temperature swing regeneration and ultra-dilute CO₂ feeds, with full thermal modelling of the column and wall.
Biogas upgrading
CO₂/CH₄ separation to pipeline-quality methane, including cycles that co-produce high-purity CO₂.
Inert & specialty gases
Helium recovery, nitrogen generation, and other trace-impurity separations on carbons and zeolites.
Evaluation
We will validate it for you — free.
Send us your data — experimental or simulated — and we will build the model and compare Skarstrom against it, at no cost. You see how closely it reproduces a case you already know before you commit to anything.