Methods and systems for removing contaminants, such as water and/or carbon dioxide, from a gas stream, such as a natural gas stream or a flue gas stream. One or more solid-tolerant heat exchangers are employed to chill the gas stream to a temperature at which the contaminants solidify. The solidified contaminants may then be separated and removed from the gas stream. In one or more aspects, the one or more solid-tolerant heat exchangers may include a scraped heat exchanger.

Impurities that are less volatile than carbon dioxide, e.g. hydrogen sulfide, are removed from crude carbon dioxide by processes involving distillation of said crude carbon dioxide in a distillation column system operating at super-atmospheric pressure(s) to produce carbon dioxide-enriched overhead vapor and bottoms liquid enriched with said impurities. Where such processes involve a single heat pump cycle, significant savings in power consumption are realized when the distillation column system is re-boiled by at least partially vaporizing liquid in or taken from an intermediate location in the column system.

A method for recovering natural gas liquids from a recycle stream having natural gas liquids includes receiving a carbon dioxide recycle stream that comprises carbon dioxide, natural gas, and the natural gas liquids. The carbon dioxide recycle stream is separated into a purified carbon dioxide recycle stream and a natural gas liquids stream. The purified carbon dioxide recycle stream comprises the carbon dioxide and the natural gas, and the natural gas liquids stream comprises the natural gas liquids. In another embodiment, a system comprises piping and a separator. The piping is configured to receive a recycle stream, and the separator is coupled to the piping and is configured to separate the recycle stream into a purified recycle stream and a natural gas liquids stream.

The present disclosure relates to systems and methods that provide a low pressure liquid CO.sub.2 stream. In particular, the present disclosure provides systems and methods wherein a high pressure CO.sub.2 stream, such as a recycle CO.sub.2 stream from a power production process using predominately CO.sub.2 as a working fluid, can be divided such that a portion thereof can be expanded and used as a cooling stream in a heat exchanger to cool the remaining portion of the high pressure CO.sub.2 stream, which can then be expanded to form a low pressure CO.sub.2 stream, which may be in a mixed form with CO.sub.2 vapor. The systems and methods can be utilized to provide net CO.sub.2 from combustion in a liquid form that is easily transportable.

A method is disclosed for separating components of a gas. A feed gas stream is cooled in the first vessel. The feed gas stream comprises methane, carbon dioxide, and a secondary component. A first portion of the secondary component condenses, desublimates, or a combination thereof to form a primary stream, resulting in a first depleted gas stream. The first depleted gas stream is cooled in a condensing exchanger such that a first portion of the methane condenses as a first liquid methane stream, resulting in a second depleted gas stream. The second depleted gas stream is cooled in the second vessel such that a first portion of the carbon dioxide desublimates to form a solid product stream, resulting in a third depleted gas stream.

In general, the present invention is directed to processes for separating a vapor comprising a first component and a second component using high-pressure density-driven separation. The present invention further relates to various processes for the capture of carbon dioxide. In particular, various processes of the present invention relate to the separation of carbon dioxide from flue gas of combustion processes. The invention also applies to upgrading fuel gases containing carbon dioxide. The invention also applies to separation of hydrogen from fuel gas vapor solutions.

A method for the separation of liquid CO.sub.2 from a 2 phase feed stream, the process comprising the steps of: cooling the feed stream to a cryogenic temperature; expanding the cooled stream so as to further lower the temperature of the feed through expansion; mechanically separating the expanded stream, using a mechanical separator, into a gas phase and a liquid CO.sub.2 phase, and; venting the gas phase and outflowing the liquid CO.sub.2.

An acid gas purification system is described herein that includes a primary membrane system with a CO.sub.2- and H.sub.2S-enriched permeate stream effluent and a hydrocarbon stream effluent; a first compression stage arranged to receive the CO.sub.2- and H.sub.2S-enriched permeate stream and produce a compressed stream; and a cryogenic separation system to receive the compressed stream, the cryogenic separation system including a cooler followed by a fractionator, wherein the fractionator produces a CO.sub.2- and H.sub.2S liquid stream and a hydrocarbon gas stream.

An apparatus for the separation of a flow containing carbon dioxide by distillation comprising a heat exchange means, a distillation column, means for sending the flow to be cooled in the heat exchange means down to a first intermediate temperature in order to form a liquid flow at a first temperature and at a first pressure, means for dividing the liquid flow in order to form a first fraction and a second fraction, means for expanding the first fraction to the pressure of a distillation column, means for sending the expanded first fraction to an intermediate level of the distillation column, means for exiting the second fraction from the cold end of the heat exchange means after cooling, means for expanding the cooled second fraction to the pressure of the distillation column, means for sending the second fraction to the distillation column and means for the withdrawal, from the bottom of the column, of a liquid flow.

In a method for liquefying a gas rich in carbon dioxide, the gas is compressed to a first pressure greater than its critical pressure in a compressor to form a compressed gas, the compressed gas is cooled through heat exchange with a refrigerant to a variable temperature to form a cooled compressed gas with a density between 370 and 900 kg/m.sup.3, the cooled compressed gas is cooled at supercritical pressure in a first heat exchanger to a temperature below the critical temperature, the gas cooled below the critical temperature is expanded to a second pressure between 45 and 60 bara to form a diphasic fluid which is separated in a phase separator to form a liquid and a gas, and a liquid portion originating from the phase separator provides cold to the first heat exchanger.