Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.

Monsanto Company

Permea, Inc.

Agrawal, Rakesh

Auvil, Steven R.

Choe, Jung S.

Steven R Auvil

Rakesh Agrawal

Jung Soo Choe

Timothy Christopher Golden

Mohammad Ali Kalbassi

James W Gambell

Paul Anthony Webley

Charles R Penquite

Rodney John Allam

William Paul Schmidt

Michel Deeba

James P Coleman

Roger Dean Whitley

Edward Landis Weist, Jr

Zbigniew Tadeusz Fidkowski

Richard C Hallcher

Dudley E McMackins

Kenneth William Kovak

John Frederick Cirucci

Annemarie Ott Weist

James Christian Sorensen

Keith B Wilson

Shyam Ramchand Suchdeo

Ian Robert Zone

Philip J Young

Rajagopalan S Srinivasan

Joan M Schork

Lyndon J Kellogg, Jr

Rakesh Agrawa

Daniel T Diggs

Raymond Elliott Sacks

Wilbur C Katz

Patrick L Mills

Jung S Choe

Method for argon recovery that comprises (a) providing a feed gas mixture comprising argon and nitrogen; (b) contacting at least a portion of the feed gas mixture with a nitrogen-selective adsorbent in a cyclic pressure swing adsorption process and adsorbing at least a portion of the nitrogen on the adsorbent in a first pressure range above 100 psia to provide a purified argon product and an adsorbent comprising adsorbed nitrogen; and (c) desorbing the adsorbed nitrogen in one or more regeneration steps effected in a second pressure range between atmospheric pressure and a super-atmospheric pressure below any pressure in the first pressure range, inclusive; wherein the cyclic pressure swing adsorption process is effected at an average operating temperature of at least about 0&#xb0; C.

Removal of gaseous contaminants from argon

An improved thermal swing adsorption process is set forth which addresses the problem of water ingress into the adsorbent by periodically heating the adsorbent to a temperature greater than the temperature used in the normal regeneration cycle.

Periodic high temperature regeneration of thermal swing adsorption systems

An apparatus for distributing a liquid in an exchange column includes a plate and at least one elongated internal baffle. The plate has at least one elongated channel, which has a first longitudinal axis, a bottom, and at least one aperture in the bottom. At least a substantial portion of the internal baffle, which has a second longitudinal axis substantially parallel to the first longitudinal axis, is disposed in the channel.

Liquid distributor internal baffling

The process recovers NF3 from a multicomponent fluid containing NF3, one or more components less volatile than NF3, and one or more components more volatile than NF3. The process uses a first distillation column and a second distillation column, each distillation column having a top and a bottom. The process includes the following steps: feeding the multicomponent fluid to the first distillation column at a first feed location below the top of the first distillation column; feeding a cryogenic liquid to the first or second distillation column adjacent the top of the first or second distillation column; withdrawing a mixture containing NF3 from the first distillation column; feeding the mixture to the second distillation column at a second feed location; separating NF3 from the mixture in the second distillation column; and removing a stream of NF3 from the second distillation column.

Purification of nitrogen trifluoride by continuous cryogenic distillation

The present invention is an apparatus and method for preferentially adsorbing carbon monoxide from a gas stream containing carbon monoxide in the presence of water and potentially ammonia while not adsorbing methane, hydrogen or carbon dioxide which may be present in the gas stream using an adsorbent of a supported cuprous compound situated downstream serially from a pretreatment adsorbent of 3A zeolite which protects the cuprous compound from water. An additional pretreatment layer of a basic metal compound to protect the acid-unstable 3A zeolite layer is also contemplated.

Pretreatment layer for CO-VSA

The present invention provides a process for utilizing one stream from a gas separation unit in an evaporation cooler to provide cool water which is used to cool the feed gas mixture by direct or indirect contact prior to entering the gas separation unit.

Process for cooling the feed gas to gas separation systems

Valuable process gas is dried to a low water content, for example a dew point of less than -20.degree. F., using membrane separation in which compression of the permeate gases and condensation and separation of liquid water from the permeate stream is combined with a total recycle of uncondensable permeate gases so that no process gas is lost as a result of the drying operation. Feed gas is combined with the recycled gas either prior to compressing, cooling and separating the liquid water from the process gas or subsequent to these steps, depending upon the pressure of the available feed stream to be dried. Membrane separation efficiency is improved by sweeping the downstream surfaces of the membrane with dried product gas. All of the sweep gas is recaptured with the permeate gases and returned to the separation unit, thereby enabling 100%, recovery of the fresh feed gas from the drying operation. Only liquid water and dissolved gases are purged from the system.

Use of membrane separation to dry gas streams containing water vapor

Nitrogen is produced by separating air in a pressure swing adsorption process using a high capacity kinetically O.sub.2 selective material as the adsorbent. An example of such an adsorbent is a carbon molecular sieve made from coconut shell char. Such a coconut shell char having a high oxygen volumetric capacity is provided by crushing and sizing coconut shells to form granules which are then heated in flowing inert gas at a temperature ramp rate of about 2 to 12.degree. C. per minute to a peak temperature of 775 to 900.degree. C. which is then held so that the total heating time is up to 8 hours and thereafter the granular char is cooled in an inert gas atmosphere. The granular char thus produced is kinetically selective for O.sub.2 over N.sub.2 without further modification to narrow the openings of its micropores and has an oxygen volumetric capacity in excess of 8.0 cc/cc at 1 atm. and ambient temperature. Further modification of this char is provided by contacting it with an oxidizing atmosphere of carbon dioxide or a mixture of inert gas and carbon dioxide, H.sub.2 O or O.sub.2 at temperatures ranging from 650.degree. to 900.degree. C. until the gasified char has been altered so that its volumetric oxygen capacity is greater than 9.0 cc/cc at 1 atm. and ambient temperature.

Air separation by pressure swing adsorption with a high capacity carbon

An improved shellside feed, countercurrent flow, hollow fiber membrane separation module is provided wherein one or more flow tubes are incorporated into the conventional design. The flow tubes increase the efficiency of the membrane separation module by reducing undesirable flow patterns that are present in the conventional module.

Membrane separation module

A process for selectively producing ortho-alkylated aromatic amines in high selectivity relative to N-alkylated aromatic amines. The process comprises reacting an aromatic amine, having at least one hydrogen atom in a position ortho to the amine functionality, and an olefin under conditions sufficient to effect an alkylation reaction, in the presence of a zeolite catalyst which has been thermally pretreated by heating the catalyst to a temperature greater than about 500.degree. C. for a period ranging from 0.5 to about 10 hours while sweeping an inert gas over the heated catalyst to remove water and ammonia formed during the thermal treatment, and subsequently recovering the alkylated aromatic amine.

Alkylation of aromatic amines over thermally pretreated zeolites

This invention relates to an improved cryogenic separation process employing a single pressure distillation column for the recovery of low purity, high pressure oxygen. The process uses two working fluids, i.e., high pressure air and high pressure nitrogen to effect reboil in the column. Both the condensed air and nitrogen streams are fed as reflux streams to the distillation column. The use of nitrogen reflux enhances oxygen recovery by enhancing purity of the nitrogen from the column.

Cryogenic process for producing low-purity oxygen

A process is set forth for recovery of nitrogen from a feed gas stream, containing nitrogen and oxygen, using a cryogenic separation wherein a recycle stream having an oxygen content above, equal to or below that of the feed gas stream is recycled from the cryogenic separation to the feed gas stream with a split reboil-condenser function that would allow variation of the oxygen content of the recycle stream.

Process for the production of high pressure nitrogen with split

This invention pertains to an improved process for the alkylation of aromatic amines. The improvement resides in the use with particular aromatic amines and olefins a catalyst which is a highly acidic partially dealuminated zeolite having an increased silica to alumina molar ratio over the original zeolite and an acidity factor of at least 0.3. The partially dealuminated zeolites are preferably exchanged with hydrogen or rare earth metal and are particularly effective for producing an alkylated aromatic amine where the alkyl group is ortho to the amine. The highly acidic partially dealuminated H-mordenite and partially dealuminated HY faujasite are very effective for the alkylation of aniline with propylene.

Alkylation of aromatic amines with olefins on partially dealuminated

A process is set forth for recovery of nitrogen from a feed gas stream, containing nitrogen and oxygen, using a cryogenic separation wherein a recycle stream having an oxygen content above that of the feed gas stream is recycled from the cryogenic separation to the feed gas stream without any intervening process step that would decrease the oxygen content of the recycle stream.

Process for the production of high pressure nitrogen

The present invention is a process for producing a high-purity argon stream from a feed gas containing nitrogen, oxygen and at least 85 mole % argon, Nitrogen is absorbed from the stream followed by catalytic hydrogenation to remove oxygen. The absorption column is regenerated at a preset low pressure using the nitrogen-depleted stream from the absorption unit as the purge gas.

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Macungie, PA, United States of America

Steven R Auvil