The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 01, 1990
Filed:
May. 15, 1989
Howard C Rowles, Center Valley, PA (US);
Calvin L Ayres, New Tripoli, PA (US);
Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., Allentown, PA (US);
Abstract
The present invention is an energy efficient process for the recovery and purification of C.sub.3.sup.+ hydrocarbons from a high pressure natural gas or refinery/petrochemical feed gas containing C.sub.3.sup.+ hydrocarbons and light gases. In the process, the high pressure feed gas is initially cooled by heat exchange with a multi-component refrigerant fluid circulating in a closed-loop cycle thereby condensing a large portion of the C.sub.3.sup.+ hydrocarbons. The non-condensed, remaining gas is work expanded to an intermediate pressure thus providing refrigeration for condensing the remaining C.sub.3.sup.+ hydrocarbons. The condensed C.sub.3.sup.+ hydrocarbon liquid streams are combined and are further purified by distillation in an integrated distillation column. Optically, refrigeration for refluxing the integrated distillation column can be provided by the mixed refrigerant cycle.