Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.

Brian B Bonner

Diwakar Garg

Donald P Eichelberger

Kerry R Berger

Donald J Bowe

Joseph Perry Cohen

David John Farese

Edward Clyde Heydorn

Paul T Kilhefner, Iii

Paul Anthony Mattiola

David L Mitchell, Jr

Ravi Subramanian

Paul T Kilhefner

Fuel gas distribution method where residual fuel gas in a mobile fuel gas storage vessel being transported by a transport vehicle is transferred from the mobile fuel gas storage vessel to the transport vehicle for generating power. The fuel gas may be natural gas or hydrogen. The transport vehicle may be a fuel cell vehicle.

Fuel gas distribution method

Method for dispensing a compressed gas using at least three dispensing protocols, the selected dispensing protocol depending on the time-averaged dispensing rate. Compressed gas is passed from a plurality of supply vessels, for example a tube trailer, to a plurality of storage vessels, and dispensed from the plurality of storage vessels to a plurality of receiving vessels. The supply vessel providing the compressed gas depends on the compressed gas pressure in the supply vessel and the anticipated time-averaged dispensing rate for the time period.

Method for dispensing compressed gases

A method for dispensing a compressed gas for reducing the amount of residual gas in dispensing station storage vessels before refilling is required. The method comprises transferring compressed gas into receiving vessels in a first series of fill-ups where each of the receiving vessels receive compressed gas from a first mobile storage device and subsequently from a second mobile storage device, transporting the first mobile storage device to a refilling station after the first mobile storage device has been depleted to a selected depletion level, refilling the first mobile storage device at the refilling station, and transferring compressed gas into receiving vessels in a second series of fill-ups where each of the receiving vessels receive compressed gas from the second mobile storage device and one or more of the first mobile storage device after refilling and a third mobile storage device.

Compressed gas dispensing method

The present invention discloses a novel, moisture-free atmosphere for brazing carbon steels that provides good braze flow and brazed joint quality with minimum or no formation of soot on brazed joints. According to the present invention, carbon steels are brazed in continuous furnaces using a moisture-free atmosphere containing a mixture of three gases including nitrogen, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide. The key features of the invention involve (1) formation of moisture, which is needed to facilitate braze flow and to minimize formation of soot on brazed joints, in-situ in the heating zone of the furnace by the reaction between hydrogen and carbon dioxide and (2) reduction in the overall amount of a reducing gas required for brazing carbon steels by keeping moisture out of the cooling zone. The use of a moisture-free three gas atmosphere has been unexpectedly found to (1) eliminate the need of an expensive and difficult to control external humidification system, (2) provide flexibility in adjusting moisture content of the atmosphere in the heating zone of the furnace simply by adjusting the flow rate of hydrogen or carbon dioxide or both, and (3) facilitate rapid conditioning of the furnace by keeping moisture out of the cooling zone. The moisture-free atmosphere has also been unexpectedly found to provide good braze flow, fillet formation, and brazed joint quality while minimizing or eliminating formation of soot on brazed joints.

Moisture-free atmosphere brazing of ferrous metals

A process for producing low-cost atmospheres suitable for annealing, brazing, and sintering ferrous and non-ferrous metals and alloys, neutral hardening low, medium, and high carbon steels, sintering ceramic powders, and sealing glass to metal from non-cryogenically produced nitrogen containing up to 5% residual oxygen is disclosed. According to the process, suitable atmospheres are produced by 1) pre-heating the non-cryogenically produced nitrogen stream containing residual oxygen to a desired temperature, 2) mixing it with more than a stoichiometric amount a hydrocarbon gas, 3) passing it through a reactor packed with a platinum group of metal catalyst to reduce the residual oxygen to very low levels and convert it to a mixture of moisture and carbon dioxide, and 4) introducing the reactor effluent stream into the heating zone of a furnace and converting in-situ a portion of both moisture and carbon dioxide with a hydrocarbon gas to a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. The key features of the disclosed process include 1) pre-heating the non-cryogenically produced nitrogen containing residual oxygen to a certain minimum temperature, 2) adding more than a stoichiometric amount of a hydrocarbon gas to the pre-heated nitrogen stream, 3) using a platinum group of metal catalyst to initiate and sustain the reaction between oxygen and the hydrocarbon gas, and 4) converting in-situ a portion of both moisture and carbon dioxide with a hydrocarbon gas to a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen in the heating zone of a furnace.

Heat treating atmospheres

A process for producing low-cost atmospheres suitable for decarburize annealing carbon steels from non-cryogenically generated nitrogen containing up to 1.54 residual oxygen by catalytically deoxygenating a non-cryogenically generated nitrogen stream at low temperatures with a hydrocarbon gas and mixing the deoxygenated stream with an economical amount of hydrogen prior to introduction into the furnace for annealing. The process includes the use of 1) hydrocarbon gas to convert residual oxygen to a mixture of carbon dioxide and moisture at low temperatures and 2) mixing the deoxygenated stream with a sufficient amount of hydrogen to maintain a pH.sub.2 /pH.sub.2 O ratio of at least 2 in the furnace.

Atmospheres for decarburize annealing steels

A process for generating in-situ low cost atmospheres suitable for annealing and heat treating ferrous and non-ferrous metals and alloys, brazing metals and ceramics, sealing glass to metals, and sintering metal and ceramic powders in a continuous furnace from non-cryogenically produced nitrogen containing up to 5% residual oxygen is presented. The disclosed process involves mixing nitrogen gas containing residual oxygen with a pre-determined amount of a reducing gas such as hydrogen, a hydrocarbon, or a mixture thereof, feeding the gaseous mixture through a non-conventional device into the hot zone of a continuous heat treating furnace, converting residual oxygen to an acceptable form such as moisture, a mixture of moisture and carbon dioxide, or a mixture of moisture, hydrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, and using the resultant gaseous mixture for annealing and heat treating metals and alloys, brazing metals and ceramics, sintering metal and ceramic powders, and sealing glass to metals.

Method of heat treating gold or gold alloy parts

An improved method for producing substantially moisture- and oxygen-free, nitrogen-hydrogen atmospheres suitable for annealing, hardening, brazing, and sintering ferrous and non-ferrous metals and alloys is disclosed. According to the disclosed method, suitable nitrogen-hydrogen atmosphere is produced by 1) generating a nitrogen stream containing about 0.1 to 5% residual oxygen by a known non-cryogenic air separation technique, 2) mixing it with a pre-determined but more than stoichiometric amount of hydrogen required to convert residual oxygen to moisture, 3) converting residual oxygen to moisture by reaction with hydrogen in a catalytic reactor, 4) cooling the reactor effluent stream, and 5) removing moisture from it in a regenerative sorbent dryer.

Method of producing nitrogen-hydrogen atmospheres for metals processing

A process for generating in-situ low-cost atmospheres suitable for annealing and heat treating ferrous and non-ferrous metals and alloys, brazing metals, sealing glass to metals, and sintering metal and ceramic powders in a continuous furnace from non-cryogenically produced nitrogen containing up to 5% residual oxygen is presented. The disclosed process involves mixing nitrogen gas containing residual oxygen with a predetermined amount of a hydrocarbon gas, feeding the gaseous mixture through a nonconventional device into the hot zone of a continuous heat treating furnace, converting residual oxygen to an acceptable form such as a mixture of moisture and carbon dioxide, a mixture of moisture, hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide, or a mixture of carbon monoxide, moisture, and hydrogen, and using the resultant gaseous mixture for annealing and heat treating metals and alloys, brazing metals, sintering metal and ceramic powders, and sealing glass to metals.

In-situ generation of heat treating atmospheres using a mixture of

An improved process for deoxygenating non-cryogenically produced nitrogen with a hydrocarbon is disclosed. According to the process, non-cryogenically produced nitrogen stream containing residual oxygen impurity is 1) pre-heated, 2) mixed with a hydrocarbon, and 3) passed through a reactor packed with a platinum group of metal catalyst to reduce oxygen to very low levels by converting it to a mixture of carbon dioxide and moisture. The reactor effluent stream is optionally treated downstream to produce a nitrogen stream substantially free of moisture and carbon dioxide. The key features of the disclosed process include 1) pre-heating non-cryogenically produced nitrogen containing residual oxygen to a certain minimum temperature, 2) adding more than stoichiometric amount of a hydrocarbon to the pre-heated nitrogen stream, and 3) using a platinum group of metal catalyst to initiate and sustain the reaction between oxygen and hydrocarbon.

Deoxygenation of non-cryogenically produced nitrogen with a hydrocarbon

An improved process for producing nitrogen-based atmospheres suitable for annealing ferrous metals and alloys, brazing metals, sintering metal and ceramic powders, and sealing glass to metals from non-cryogenically generated nitrogen is presented. These atmospheres are produced by 1) humidifying non-cryogenically generated nitrogen containing less than 5.0 vol. % residual oxygen, 2) mixing it with a specified amount of a hydrocarbon gas, 3) feeding the gaseous mixture into the heating zone of a furnace through a diffuser, and 4) converting in-situ the residual oxygen and moisture present in it to a mixture of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, moisture, and/or hydrogen. The key features of the present invention include a) humidifying the feed gas prior to introducing it into the heating zone of a furnace operated above about 800.degree. C. and b) using enough amount of a hydrocarbon gas to facilitate in-situ conversion of residual oxygen and moisture present in the feed gas to a mixture of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, moisture, and hydrogen in the heating zone of a furnace.

Heat treating atmospheres from non-cryogenically generated nitrogen

A process for producing low-cost atmospheres suitable for annealing, brazing, and sintering non-ferrous metals and alloys from non-cryogenically produced nitrogen containing up to 5%, residual oxygen is disclosed. According to the process, suitable atmospheres are produced by 1) pre-heating the non-cryogenically produced nitrogen stream containing residual oxygen to a desired temperature, 2) mixing it with more than a stoichiometric amount a hydrocarbon gas, 3) passing it through a reactor packed with a platinum group of metal catalyst to reduce the residual oxygen to very low levels and convert it to a mixture of moisture and carbon dioxide, and 4) using the reactor effluent stream for annealing, brazing, and sintering non-ferrous metals and alloys in a furnace. The key features of the disclosed process include 1) pre-heating the non-cryogenically produced nitrogen containing residual oxygen to a certain minimum temperature, 2) adding more than a stoichiometric amount of a hydrocarbon gas to the pre-heated nitrogen stream, and 3) using a platinum group of metal catalyst to initiate and sustain the reaction between oxygen and the hydrocarbon gas.

Atmospheres for heat treating non-ferrous metals and alloys

A process for generating in-situ low-cost atmospheres suitable for annealing and heat treating ferrous and non-ferrous metals and alloys, brazing metals and ceramics, sealing glass to metals, and sintering metal and ceramic powders in a continuous furnace from non-cryogenically produced nitrogen containing up to 5% residual oxygen is presented. The disclosed process involves mixing nitrogen gas containing residual oxygen with a pre-determined amount of a reducing gas such as hydrogen, a hydrocarbon, or a mixture thereof, feeding the gaseous mixture through a non-conventional device into the hot zone of a continuous heat treating furnace, converting residual oxygen to an acceptable form such as moisture, a mixture of moisture and carbon dioxide, or a mixture of moisture, hydrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, and using the resultant gaseous mixture for annealing and heat treating metals and alloys, brazing metals and ceramics, sintering metal and ceramic powders, and sealing glass to metals.

In-situ generation of heat treating atmospheres using non-cryogenically

A process for producing low-cost furnace atmospheres suitable for annealing and heat treating ferrous and non-ferrous metals and alloys, brazing metals and ceramics, sealing glass to metals, and sintering non-ferrous metal and ceramic powders from non-cryogenically produced nitrogen containing from 0.05 to 5.0% residual oxygen is presented. The disclosed process involves 1) mixing non-cryogenically produced nitrogen with a predetermined amount of dissociated ammonia, 2) passing the mixture through a low-pressure drop catalytic reactor, 3) converting the residual oxygen to an acceptable form such as moisture and reducing the residual oxygen level to below about 10 ppm, and 4) using the resultant gaseous mixture for annealing and heat treating ferrous and non-ferrous metals and alloys, brazing metals and ceramics, sealing glass to metals, and sintering non-ferrous metal and ceramic powders. The key feature of the disclosed process involves the use of a novel low-pressure drop catalytic reactor for converting residual oxygen with dissociated ammonia to moisture.

Process for producing furnace atmospheres by deoxygenating

An integrated two-step process for producing low-cost atmospheres suitable for annealing ferrous and non-ferrous metals and alloys, brazing metals, sealing glass to metals, and sintering metal and ceramic powders in continuous furnaces from non-cryogenically produced nitrogen containing up to 3% residual oxygen is disclosed. The residual oxygen present in non-cryogenically produced nitrogen is converted to moisture by mixing it hydrogen and passing the mixture through a reactor packed with a platinum group catalyst in the first step of the process. The reactor effluent stream containing a mixture of nitrogen, unreacted hydrogen, and moisture is mixed with a predetermined amount of a hydrocarbon gas and introduced into the heating zone of a continuous furnace in the second step of the process to 1) convert moisture to a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen by reaction with the hydrocarbon gas via water gas shift reaction and 2) produce atmospheres in-situ suitable for heat treating. The key features of the process include 1) use of economical amount of hydrogen to convert residual oxygen to moisture in an external catalytic reactor and 2) conversion of moisture to a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen by reaction with the hydrocarbon gas via water gas shift reaction in the hot zone of a continuous furnace. The disclosed process is particularly suitable for producing low-cost heat treating atmospheres for continuous furnaces operated at 700.degree. C. and above.

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Nesquehoning, PA, United States of America

Brian B Bonner