Recovering helium from a gaseous stream includes contacting an acid gas removal membrane with a gaseous stream to yield a permeate stream and a residual stream, removing a majority of the acid gas from the residual stream to yield a first acid gas stream and a helium depleted clean gas stream, removing a majority of the acid gas from the permeate stream to yield a second acid gas stream and a helium rich stream, and removing helium from the helium rich stream to yield a helium product stream and a helium depleted stream. A helium removal system for removing helium from a gaseous stream including hydrocarbon gas, acid gas, and helium includes a first processing zone including a first acid gas removal unit, a second processing zone including a second acid gas removal unit, a third processing zone, and a helium purification unit.

A method for the extraction of xenon gas bound to a filter material using supercritical CO.sub.2 to form a mixture in which both CO.sub.2 and xenon are in a supercritical state.

Described are bulk process gas purification systems and related methods, including systems that are adapted to use a volume of gas at an exterior surface of a vessel, e.g., a flow of the gas, to control a temperature of the vessel interior during a recharging step, during a cooling step that follows a recharging step, or both.

A backfilling-type online chromatographic detector for sulphur hexafluoride decomposition products includes: a compression pump, a vacuum pump, a gas storage tank, a first six-way valve, a second six-way valve, a first chromatographic column, a second chromatographic column and a detector. One end of the compression pump is connected to one end of the vacuum pump, another end of the vacuum pump is connected to one end of the gas storage tank, another end of the gas storage tank is connected to the first chromatographic column through the first six-way valve, the first chromatographic column is connected to the second chromatographic column through the second six-way valve, and the second chromatographic column is connected to the detector.

An atmospheric transfer device 20 includes a wafer transfer mechanism 101 holding and transferring a wafer W; a housing 100 accommodating the wafer transfer mechanism 101; a gas supply unit 110 supplying an inert gas into the housing 100; a gas circulation unit 140 returning a gas discharged from the housing 100 back into the housing 100; and a foreign substance removing unit 150 removing a foreign substance contained in the gas discharged from the housing 100. The foreign substance removing unit 150 includes a humidifying unit 160 configured to add moisture to the gas discharged from the housing 100; a filter 170 configured to adsorb and remove, by using the moisture, the foreign substance contained in the gas humidified by the humidifying unit 160; and a dehumidifying unit 180 configured to remove the moisture from the gas from which the foreign substance is removed by the filter 170.

In a helium purification process, a stream containing at least 10% of helium, at least 10% of nitrogen in addition to hydrogen and methane is separated to form a helium-enriched stream containing hydrogen, a first stream enriched in nitrogen and in methane and a second stream enriched in nitrogen and in methane, the helium-enriched stream is treated to produce a helium-rich product and a residual gas containing water, the residual gas is treated by adsorption (TSA) to remove the water and the regeneration gas from the adsorption is sent to a combustion unit (O).

The invention relates to a method for purifying a carrier gas which comprises oxygenated impurities in a first oxidation degree, the purification method comprising the circulation, advantageously uninterrupted, of the carrier gas through and along a direction XX of a filter, the filter being made of an oxygen scavenger material which has a redox potential E, and of which a first portion is in a reduced redox state and within which the oxygenated impurities are scavenged and/or pass from the first oxidation degree to a second oxidation degree, the method further comprising the application to the filter of a greater electric potential V, as an absolute value, than the redox potential E during a main purification cycle CP.

The present invention relates to an adsorption process for xenon recovery from a cryogenic liquid or gas stream wherein a bed of adsorbent is contacted with a xenon-containing liquid or gas stream selectively adsorbing the xenon from said stream. The adsorption bed is operated to at least near full breakthrough with xenon to enable a deep rejection of other stream components, prior to regeneration using the temperature swing method. After the stripping step, the xenon adsorbent bed is drained to clear out the liquid residue left in the nonselective void space and the xenon molecules in those void spaces is recycled upstream to the ASU distillation column for increasing xenon recovery. The xenon adsorbent bed is optionally purged with oxygen, followed by purging with gaseous argon at cryogenic temperature (160 K) to displace the oxygen co-adsorbed on the AgX adsorbent due to higher selectivity of argon over oxygen on the AgX adsorbent. By the end of this step, the xenon adsorbent bed is filled with argon and xenon. Then the entire adsorbent bed is heated indirectly without utilizing any of the purge gas for direct heating. Operating the adsorption bed to near full breakthrough with xenon and displacing the adsorbed oxygen and other residues with argon, prior to regeneration, along with indirect heating of the bed, enables production of a high purity product 40 vol % xenon from the adsorption bed and further enables safely heating without any purge gas and ease for downstream product collection, even in cases where hydrocarbons are co-present in the feed stream.

Process and apparatus for producing helium, neon, or argon product gas using an adsorption separation unit having minimal dead end volumes. A purification unit receives a stream enriched in helium, neon, or argon, and a stream is recycled from the purification unit back to the adsorption separation unit in a controlled manner to maintain the concentration of the helium, neon, or argon in the feed to the separation unit within a targeted range.

Disclosed herein are rapid cycle pressure swing adsorption (PSA) process for separating O.sub.2 from N.sub.2 and/or Ar. The processes use a carbon molecular sieve (CMS) adsorbent having an O.sub.2/N.sub.2 and/or O.sub.2/Ar kinetic selectivity of at least 5 and an O.sub.2 adsorption rate (1/s) of at least 0.2000 as determined by linear driving force model at 1 atma and 86 F.