Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.

John Eugene Palamara

Paul Higginbotham

Vincent White

David Anthony Zagnoli

William Frederick Baade

Jason Michael Ploeger

Galip Hakan Guvelioglu

Alan Berger

Timothy Christopher Golden

Kevin Boyle Fogash

Jeffrey Raymond Hufton

Liu Yang

Yang Liu

Alan D Berger

Cory E Sanderson

John H Petrik

Jack Theodore Kindt

Fabrice Amy

Light gases such as helium are extracted from a carbon dioxide-containing feed stream by distillation. Costly dehydration steps are avoided by pumping the liquid bottoms stream leaving the distillation column without vaporization so as to ensure that any water present in the feed remains in solution with the bulk stream leaving the process. This prevents any liquid phase water causing corrosion or solid ice or hydrates forming to plug the flow.

Lights removal from carbon dioxide

Impurities that are less volatile than carbon dioxide, e.g. hydrogen sulfide, are removed from crude carbon dioxide by processes involving distillation of said crude carbon dioxide in a distillation column system operating at super-atmospheric pressure(s) to produce carbon dioxide-enriched overhead vapor and bottoms liquid enriched with said impurities. Where such processes involve a single heat pump cycle, significant savings in power consumption are realized when the distillation column system is re-boiled by at least partially vaporizing liquid in or taken from an intermediate location in the column system.

Purification of carbon dioxide

The power required to recover Chydrocarbons from crude carbon dioxide comprising Chydrocarbons and hydrogen sulfide may be reduced by distilling the crude carbon dioxide to produce carbon dioxide-enriched overhead vapor and Chydrocarbon-enriched bottoms liquid such that the hydrogen sulfide is rejected with the overhead vapor. Power consumption reductions may be achieved by incorporating a heat pump cycle using carbon dioxide vapor as working fluid to provide at least a part of the refrigeration duty and using a side reboiler to reduce the bottom reboiler duty. Where the bottoms liquid is further processed to produce 'lighter' and 'heavier' hydrocarbon fractions, the process enables optimization of upgrading crude oil on the basis of API gravity, Reid Vapor pressure and/or viscosity.

Process for recovering hydrocarbons from crude carbon dioxide fluid

In a process for separating at least one 'heavy' impurity such as hydrogen sulfide from crude carbon dioxide comprising significant quantities of at least one 'light' impurity such as non-condensable gases, involving at least one heat pump cycle using carbon dioxide-containing fluid from the process as the working fluid, the &#x201c;light&#x201d; impurity is removed from the crude carbon dioxide and carbon dioxide is subsequently recovered from the removed &#x201c;light&#x201d; impurity, thereby improving overall carbon dioxide recovery and efficiency in terms of energy consumption.

Helium can be recovered from nitrogen-rich natural gas at high pressure with low helium loss by cryogenic distillation of the natural gas after pre-treatment of the gas to remove incompatible impurities and then recovery of natural gas liquid (NGL) from the pre-treated gas by distillation. Overall power consumption may be reduced, particularly if the feed to the helium recovery column system is at least substantially condensed by indirect heat exchange against a first portion of nitrogen-enriched bottoms liquid at first pressure, and a second portion of nitrogen-enriched bottoms liquid at a second pressure that is different from the first pressure.

Treatment of nitrogen-rich natural gas streams

Carbon dioxide is separated from natural gas using a single stage membrane separation system to produce a retentate gas that typically meets the specification for pipeline distribution of natural gas, and a permeate gas comprising methane that is combusted to generate power and/or heat, e.g. for use in providing the utility requirements of the process itself or for export to an integrated process. Advantages include an overall reduction in power consumption and improvement in process efficiency.

Membrane separation of carbon dioxide from natural gas with energy recovery

The invention provides systems and methods for separating ethane and heavier hydrocarbons from a natural gas stream. In aspects of the invention, an adsorption unit is integrated with a cryogenic gas processing plant in order to overcome methane recovery limitations by sending the tail gas from the adsorption unit to the cryogenic gas processing plant to recover methane that would otherwise be lost.

Natural gas processing plant

Systems and methods are provided for recovering helium from a feed comprising helium, carbon dioxide, and at least one intermediate component having a volatility between those of helium and carbon dioxide. In particular, processes of the present invention comprise separating the carbon dioxide and the components of intermediate volatility from the helium at a temperature greater than &#x2212;82.7&#xb0; C. to form a helium-rich product stream, wherein the concentration of at least one of the intermediate components in the helium-rich product stream is lower than its concentration in the feed stream, and wherein at least part of the separation is effected by contacting a vapor with a liquid.

Systems and methods for recovering helium from feed streams containing carbon dioxide

A method and apparatus for removing carbon dioxide from a synthesis gas stream containing hydrogen is disclosed. The method includes absorbing the carbon dioxide using a physical solvent under high pressure and then liberating the carbon dioxide in a series of expansion stages where the pressure on the solvent is reduced. The expansion ratio increases with each expansion stage. The apparatus includes expansion stages having throttling devices and expansion tanks operated at increasing expansion ratios. Carbon dioxide is liberated in this manner so as to minimize the energy required compress for transport via a pipe line for sequestration of the gas. Sequestration of the carbon dioxide is preferred to atmospheric venting to curb the release of greenhouse gases.

Method and apparatus for separating gases

Reformer and method for producing hydrogen and steam where steam is used for steam-assisted extraction of heavy hydrocarbons. Steam is injected into a hydrocarbon-containing reservoir. Hydrocarbons are extracted from the reservoir along with produced water. Hydrogen is produced in a catalytic steam hydrocarbon reformer. Combustion product gas from the reformer is used to generate wet steam in a once-through steam generator from produced water recycled from the reservoir. The wet steam is used for the steam-assisted extraction of heavy hydrocarbons. The reformer has a heat exchanger section including a first heat exchanger and a second heat exchanger downstream of the first heat exchanger. The second heat exchanger is suitable for processing the produced water by once-through steam generation and is suitable for mechanical cleaning. The reformer also has a first exhaust downstream of the second heat exchanger and a closeable second exhaust downstream of the first heat exchanger.

Integrated hydrogen production and hydrocarbon extraction

Reformer and method for producing hydrogen and steam where steam is used for steam-assisted extraction of heavy hydrocarbons. Steam is injected into a hydrocarbon-containing reservoir. Hydrocarbons are extracted from the reservoir along with produced water. Hydrogen is produced in a catalytic steam hydrocarbon reformer. Combustion product gas from the reformer is used to generate wet steam in a once-through steam generator from produced water recycled from the reservoir. The wet steam is used for the steam-assisted extraction of heavy hydrocarbons. The reformer has a heat exchanger section where a heat exchanger is suitable for processing the produced water by once-through steam generation and is suitable for mechanical cleaning.

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Macungie, PA, United States of America

John Eugene Palamara