Evaluation of on-stream industrial CO 2 adsorbent in air pretreatment for cryogenic production of oxygen

•Testing methodology using dense loading technique and Boltzmann function for evaluation of CO2 adsorbent is demonstrated.•CO2 breakthrough capacity correlates more representatively with adsorption strength of hydrocarbon than BET surface area.•Testing methodology has been applied for optimum design of moisture/CO2 adsorbent system, regeneration protocol.•The testing mythology is a powerful tool for diagnosis of mal-distribution in industrial adsorption chamber.