Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.

Gtlpetrol LLC

Vincent White

Rodney John Allam

Paul Higginbotham

Kevin Boyle Fogash

Andrew David Wright

Jeffrey Kloosterman

John Eugene Palamara

Francis Peter Petrocelli

Jeffrey William Kloosterman

Timothy Christopher Golden

Joseph Gerard Wehrman

Jeffrey Raymond Hufton

Robert Quinn

Simon Craig Saloway

Charles Linford Schaffer

Edwin John Miller

Andrew Weaver

David B Byard

Alan Berger

Mohammad Ali Kalbassi

Liu Yang

Jason Michael Ploeger

Yang Liu

Galip Hakan Guvelioglu

Alan D Berger

Jonathan Wilson

Brian Waldie

Julia Elizabeth Milligan

Andrew Shaw

Processes for cracking ammonia are improved by using heat generated in a compression unit that is used to compress PSA off gas being recycled to a PSA unit to pre-heat liquid ammonia prior to vaporization and cracking. The heat is transferred using a heat transfer fluid such as an aqueous solution comprising from about 50 wt. % to about 60 wt. % of a glycol, e.g., ethylene glycol or propylene glycol.

Process and apparatus for cracking ammonia

The invention concerns a process and apparatus for cracking ammonia in which heated ammonia gas at super-atmospheric pressure is partially cracked in at least two adiabatic reactors in series with interstage heating in which the feed temperature to a first reactor is higher than the feed temperature to a further reactor to produce a partially cracked ammonia gas which is then fed to catalyst-containing reactor tubes in a furnace to produce a cracked gas comprising hydrogen gas, nitrogen gas and residual ammonia gas. The use of the adiabatic reactors enables more efficient heat integration within the process and the higher temperature in the first reactor enables the use of a nickel-based catalyst in that reactor as an alternative solution to the potential problem of the presence of oil in the ammonia.

A process for producing compressed hydrogen gas, said process comprising electrolysing water to produce hydrogen gas and compressing said hydrogen gas in a multistage compression system to produce compressed hydrogen gas. The multistage compression system comprises at least one centrifugal compression stage, and the hydrogen gas is fed to the centrifugal compression stage at a pre-determined feed temperature and pressure and having a pre-determined relative humidity. The process further comprises adding water and heat to the hydrogen gas upstream of the centrifugal compression stage, as required, to humidify the hydrogen gas to the pre-determined relative humidity.

Process and apparatus for compressing hydrogen gas in a centrifugal compressor

A process for producing compressed hydrogen gas including: electrolysing water to produce hydrogen gas, and compressing the hydrogen gas in a multistage compression system including: a centrifugal compression stage and a recycle system for recycling a portion of the hydrogen gas from a product end to a feed end of the centrifugal compression stage; wherein hydrogen gas feed is fed to the feed end at a pre-determined feed temperature and pressure and mole fraction of water; wherein a portion of the hydrogen gas is removed from the product end, reduced in pressure in the recycle system to the pre-determined feed pressure and is then recycled to form at least part of the hydrogen gas feed to the centrifugal compression stage; and further including cooling hydrogen gas comprising the reduced pressure hydrogen gas such that the water mole fraction in the hydrogen gas feed is at the pre-determined water mole fraction.

A method for supplying hydrogen gas for consumption in at least one downstream process, the method comprising: electrolysing water to provide hydrogen gas; compressing the hydrogen gas in a multistage compression system to provide compressed hydrogen gas; and feeding at least a portion of the compressed hydrogen gas to the downstream process(es); wherein the multistage compression system comprises at least one centrifugal compression stage; wherein the hydrogen gas is dosed with nitrogen gas upstream of the centrifugal compression stage(s); and wherein the nitrogen gas is present in the compressed hydrogen gas when fed to the downstream process(es).

Method and apparatus for dosing hydrogen in a centrifugal compression system

A helium-containing stream is recovered from a natural gas feed using a membrane followed by multiple distillation steps. Refrigeration is provided by expanding a bottoms liquid with a higher nitrogen content than the feed, achieving a lower temperature in the process. The helium-enriched vapor is then purified and the helium-containing waste stream is recycled to maximize recovery and reduce the number of compressors needed. The helium-depleted natural gas stream can be returned at pressure for utilization or transportation.

Helium extraction from natural gas

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.

Purification of carbon dioxide

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

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

Sulfur dioxide (SO) is removed from a carbon dioxide feed gas by maintaining the feed gas at elevated pressure(s) in the presence of oxygen (O), water and NOfor a period of time sufficient to convert SOto sulfuric acid and NOto nitric acid and produce SO-depleted, NO-lean carbon dioxide gas. The invention resides in separating the sulfuric and nitric acids from said SO-depleted, NO-lean carbon dioxide gas, and then neutralizing the acids by reaction with an alkaline sorbent in an acid/sorbent reactor system to produce sorbent-derive sulfate. The method has particular application in the removal of SOand NOfrom flue gas produced by oxyfuel combustion of a carbonaceous fuel.

[object Object]

Impure carbon dioxide ('CO') comprising a first contaminant selected from the group consisting of oxygen ('O') and carbon monoxide (&#x201c;CO&#x201d;) is purified by separating expanded impure carbon dioxide liquid in a mass transfer separation column system. The impure carbon dioxide may be derived from, for example, flue gas from an oxyfuel combustion process or waste gas from a hydrogen (&#x201c;H&#x201d;) PSA system.

Both power and Hare produced from a gaseous mixture, comprising Hand CO, using first and second pressure swing adsorption (PSA) systems in series. The gaseous mixture is fed at super-atmospheric pressure to the first PSA system, which comprises adsorbent that selectively adsorbs COat said pressure, and COis adsorbed, thereby providing an H-enriched mixture at super-atmospheric pressure. A fuel stream is formed from a portion of the H-enriched mixture, which is combusted and the combustion effluent expanded to generate power. Another portion of the H-enriched mixture is sent to the second PSA system, which comprises adsorbent that selectively adsorbs COat super-atmospheric pressure, and COis adsorbed, thereby providing a high purity Hproduct. In preferred embodiments, the division of H-enriched mixture between forming the fuel stream and being fed to the second PSA system is adjustable.

Method and apparatus for producing power and hydrogen

According to an embodiment, a method of operating an oxy/fuel system and an oxy/fuel system circulate a support gas in the combustion system prior to activating at least one burner, produce the combustion fluid including CO, wherein a level of the COin the combustion fluid increases as a function of time, and continue production of the combustion fluid to exceed a predetermined level of the COin the combustion fluid, for a period of time, the predetermined level being sufficient to permit the COto be purified by a COpurification unit.

Transient operation of oxy/fuel combustion system

SOand/or NOare removed from gaseous COat elevated pressure(s) in the presence of molecular oxygen and water and, when SOis to be removed, NO, to convert SOto sulfuric acid and/or NOto nitric acid. The sulfuric acid and/or nitric acid is/are then removed from the gaseous carbon dioxide to produce SO-free, NO-lean carbon dioxide gas. The invention has particular application in the removal of SOand/or NOfrom carbon dioxide flue gas produced in an oxyfuel combustion process, for example, in a pulverized coal fired power station.

Growing community of inventors

Ashtead, United Kingdom

Vincent White