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Gas Technology Institute

Shain-Jer Doong

Lubo Zhou

Christopher B McIlroy

Jayant Kumar Gorawara

Bradley P Russell

Bhargav C Sharma

James Robert Gaspar

John Louis Griffiths

Trevor D Smith

Mark G Riley

Henry Rastelli

Leonid Bresler

Mark M Davis

Mark E Schott

Francis Sikming Lau

Nagaraju Palla

Hadjira Iddir

Keith R Clark

David W Greer

John M Foresman

Raja A Jadhav

Michael E Clark

Ali Hatami

Dennis J Bellville

The invention provides a process to purify a gas stream by using an adsorbent bed and a secondary device to remove heavy hydrocarbons with a recycle stream then sent first to a vessel containing an amine solvent to remove acid gases including carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide and then in most embodiments of the invention sending the treated gas stream to a dehydration unit such as an adsorbent bed or to a triethylene glycol absorbent to remove water. The invention further provides improved integration of the process streams to allow for smaller amine solvent and dehydration units as compared to the prior art.

Process for the removal of carbon dioxide and heavy hydrocarbons

A process for regenerating a temperature swing adsorption unit comprising: sending a heated purge gas stream through an adsorption bed to remove impurities from said adsorption bed and producing a contaminated stream; sending said contaminated stream to a separator to produce a liquid stream and a vapor stream; returning said vapor stream as at least a portion of said heated purge stream until said vapor stream comprises above a predetermined level of impurities; and purging a portion of said vapor stream until the heated purge stream has a level of impurities below a second predetermined level.

Thermal swing adsorption process with purification

A process of treating a natural gas stream is provided comprising sending natural gas stream through a first adsorbent bed to remove water and heavy hydrocarbons (C8+) to produce a partially treated gas stream in which the first adsorbent bed is regenerated by a temperature swing adsorption process and then sending the partially treated gas stream through a second adsorption bed to remove carbon dioxide and lighter hydrocarbons (C7&#x2212;) to produce a purified natural gas stream wherein said second adsorption bed is regenerated by a temperature pressure swing adsorption process.

Adsorption process for treating natural gas

Adsorption vessels and systems utilizing adsorption vessels are provided herein. In one embodiment, an adsorption vessel for receiving a fluid mixture and for separating a component from therein includes a vessel wall extending from a bottom end to a top end and defining a vessel chamber. A bottom inlet is formed in the bottom end of the adsorption vessel for introducing the fluid mixture to the vessel chamber. A filler material having a total porosity of less than about 25% and a density less than about 900 kg/m3 or an insert or both are positioned in the top void volume to increase overall performance of the adsorbent vessel.

Adsorption vessels having reduced void volume through the use of non-porous, low-density filler material to reduce voids

This invention uses a fixed-bed adsorber, interchangeably called a capacitor herein, to process the product stream coming out of a regenerable adsorption system such as a temperature swing adsorption system (TSA) or pressure swing adsorption system (PSA). The fluid stream coming out of this fixed-bed capacitor will have a more uniform composition than the one entering the adsorption system or the capacitor. The fixed-bed adsorber operates in a once-through non-cyclic manner, similar to a conventional fixed bed reactor or adsorber.

Use of a peak-dampening capacitor to improve adsorber separation performance

This invention provides a method to smooth out the concentration peak generated from the regeneration stream of a cyclic adsorption process such as PTSA or TSA process. A fixed-bed adsorber (called a capacitor) to process the spent regeneration gas from a TPSA or TSA unit to maintain a constant composition of the spent regeneration gas to the downstream unit. The adsorber operates in a once-through non-cyclic manner, very similar to the conventional fixed bed reactor or adsorber. The spent regeneration gas stream coming out of the adsorber will have a more uniform COcomposition than without the capacitor.

Reducing peak compositions in regeneration gas for swing adsorption processes

Process for retrofitting existing processing units for natural gas fee streams. A portion of the dehydration adsorbent is removed from the vessels of the dehydration unit and is replaced with an adsorbent for heavy hydrocarbons. In operation the vessels are operated in thermal swing adsorption processes with reduced cycle times compared to the original design.

Processes for removing heavy hydrocarbons and water from a stream of natural gas

A process is provided to treat a natural gas stream by removing heavier hydrocarbons comprising C5, C6 and heavier hydrocarbons. The process involves sending a natural gas stream through an adsorbent bed to remove heavier hydrocarbons and producing a product stream comprising C1 to C4 hydrocarbons. A portion of the product stream is sent through a regeneration heater to produce a heated regeneration gas stream which is sent through the adsorbent bed to desorb the heavier hydrocarbons. Then the regeneration gas stream is cooled and sent to a separation unit such as a distillation column to divide the regeneration gas stream into a liquid stream comprising heavier hydrocarbons and a recovered regeneration gas stream.

Temperature swing adsorption process for heavy hydrocarbon removal

A temperature swing adsorption apparatuses and process is disclosed comprising passing a feed stream to a first adsorption bed to adsorb one or more contaminants from the feed stream to produce a product stream. A regeneration gas separator overhead stream is passed to a second adsorption bed to provide a second adsorption bed effluent stream. The second adsorption bed effluent stream is passed to a heater to generate a hot regeneration effluent stream. The hot regeneration effluent stream is passed to a third adsorption bed to regenerate the third adsorption bed and provide a regeneration effluent stream. At least a portion of the regeneration effluent stream is passed to a guard bed to remove sulfur and oxygen compounds to provide a treated regeneration effluent stream. The treated regeneration effluent stream is passed to a regeneration gas separator to provide the regeneration gas separator overhead stream.

Temperature swing adsorption process and apparatus with closed loop regeneration

The invention involves a process for treating a natural gas stream comprising sending the natural gas stream first to an adsorbent unit for removal of mercury. Then the gas stream is sent to an absorbent unit containing a chemical solvent and a physical solvent for removal of carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, carbonyl sulfide and organic sulfur compounds to produce a partially purified natural gas stream. This stream is dehydrated and becomes the product stream. The partially purified natural gas stream to a dehydration unit to remove water to produce a natural gas product stream. The impurities absorbed by the absorption unit are removed and a liquid stream is separated that contains the sulfur impurities. This liquid stream may be purified and stabilized before being shipped for further treatment.

Removal of sulfur compounds in an acid gas stream generated from solvent-based gas treating process

A process for reducing the size of sulfur removal units is presented. The process includes passing a regeneration gas from a regenerated contaminant adsorption unit through a fixed bed adsorber. The fixed bed adsorber adsorbs sulfur compounds above an equilibrium condition and releases adsorbed sulfur compounds below the equilibrium condition. The peak levels of sulfur in the regeneration gas are reduced and the processing of the regeneration gas reduces the size of sulfur removal units.

Method for smoothing time-varying concentration of a fluid stream

A process for the removal of sulfur compounds from a feed stream. A first separation zone removes sulfur compounds and produces a partially cleaned stream. A first adsorption zone adsorbs the remaining organic sulfur compounds on a regenerable adsorbent a produces a treated gas stream. A portion of the treated gas stream may regenerate the adsorbent in the first adsorption zone by removing organic sulfur compounds. The organic sulfur compound rich stream can be passed to a non-regenerable adsorption zone. The non-regenerable adsorption zone will separate out the organic sulfur compounds and provide a re-treated gas stream which may be recycled to a portion of the process. The non-regenerable adsorption zone may include regenerable adsorbent, but the zone is not operated to regenerate the adsorbent while it is in the non-regenerable adsorption zone.

Process for removing sulfur compounds from natural gas streams

A process for treatment of a natural gas stream, or other methane containing stream that passes through a guard bed for removal of mercury and hydrolysis of COS, followed by treatment with an absorbent unit containing an amine solvent for removal of carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide. The gas is then dried by a molecular sieve bed. The regeneration gas for the molecular sieve adsorbent bed is chilled to remove liquid hydrocarbons and sulfur compounds. The process is accomplished without the use of an absorbent unit to remove the sulfur compounds.

Removal of sulfur compounds from natural gas streams

A process for treating a gas stream, such as natural gas, comprising a process design that prevents the formation of undesired sulfur and sulfates from the reaction of oxygen and sulfur is disclosed. After water is removed from the gas stream, a portion of the dried gas stream is sent through a cooled adsorbent bed that has a first layer to remove sulfur compounds and then a layer to remove oxygen. There may be additional layers of adsorbent to remove other contaminants. The gas stream that is then heated to regenerate an adsorbent bed no longer contains sulfur and oxygen and undesirable reactions of sulfur and oxygen are avoided.

Oxygen and sulfur tolerant adsorbent system

Methods of removing free oxygen from a hydrocarbon stream are described. A hydrocarbon stream containing free oxygen is contacted with an adsorbent comprising a metal in a reduced state. The free oxygen in the hydrocarbon stream reacts with the metal in the reduced state to form oxidized metal and a reduced oxygen hydrocarbon stream. Syngas is made from a portion of the reduced oxygen hydrocarbon stream. A regeneration gas stream comprising a mixture of the syngas and another portion of the reduced oxygen hydrocarbon stream is contacted with the oxidized metal to reduce the oxidized metal to form the metal in the reduced state.

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Kildeer, IL, United States of America

Shain-Jer Doong