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:
Oct. 07, 2003
Filed:
Sep. 17, 2002
Applicant:
Inventors:
Richard W. Baker, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Kaaeid A. Lokhandwala, Fremont, CA (US);
Johannes G. Wijmans, Menlo Park, CA (US);
Andre R. Da Costa, Menlo Park, CA (US);
Assignee:
Membrane Technology and Research, Inc., Menlo Park, CA (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
B01D 5/322 ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
B01D 5/322 ;
Abstract
A process for treating natural gas or other methane-rich gas to remove excess nitrogen. The invention relies on two-stage membrane separation, using methane-selective membranes for the first stage and nitrogen-selective membranes for the second stage. The process enables the nitrogen content of the gas to be substantially reduced, without requiring the membranes to be operated at very low temperatures.