Huge amounts of global warming gas emissions have prompted interest in the recovery of H-2 from off-gases in the iron and steel industries. Pressure swing adsorption (PSA) processes with layered beds packed with zeolite 5A and activated carbon were applied for H-2 recovery from coal gas with relatively low H-2 concentrations (H-2/CO2/CH4/CO/N-2; 38/50/1/1/10 vol.%). Breakthrough curves in the layered bed showed behavior results between the zeolite 5A bed and the activated carbon bed. The bed with the higher zeolite ratio produced H-2 of higher purity in the PSA operation, but recovery loss became more significant with its increasing ratio. The variation of purity and recovery by operating variables were more significant in the two-bed PSA process than they were in the four-bed PSA process. The purity in the two-bed PSA varied asymptotically according to P/F ratio in the range of 0.1-0.3, while purity variation in the four-bed PSA process was almost linear. The zeolite layer in the two-bed PSA process worked as a separator of N-2, while that in the four-bed PSA process worked as a purifier of N-2. The four-bed PSA process could produce H-2 with a purity of 96-99.5% and a recovery of 71-85% with N-2 as the major impurity. The dynamics of the breakthrough and H-2 PSA processes were studied using a non-isothermal dynamic model. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.