The invention relates to a cyclical method for producing a nitrogen fraction, the purity of which is greater than or equal to 95 mol %, and a hydrocarbon-enriched fraction from a filler containing nitrogen and a hydrocarbon, said method using a specific class of porous hybrid solids as an adsorbent in a pressure-swing adsorption (PSA) process. The invention also relates to equipment for implementing said method.

The present invention involves the use of a two-step membrane system for gas separations. In this two-step membrane system, the membrane system comprises high selectivity and high permeance membranes. The two-step membrane system includes a first membrane section, a second membrane section and an ejector configured to increase the pressure of a lower permeate using the energy from a higher permeate gas pressure. The process provides increase in product recovery and product purity of the product gases. It can also save the cost compared to the system using compressors and external energy to drive the separation of gases.

This invention provides a new facilitated transport membrane comprising a relatively hydrophilic, very small pore, nanoporous support membrane, a hydrophilic polymer inside the very small nanopores on the skin layer surface of the support membrane, a thin, nonporous, hydrophilic polymer layer coated on the surface of the support membrane, and metal salts incorporated in the hydrophilic polymer layer coated on the surface of the support membrane and the hydrophilic polymer inside the very small nanopores, a method of making this membrane, and the use of this membrane for olefin/paraffin separations, particularly for C3=/C3 and C2=/C2 separations.

An automated system for the separation of vapor and liquid from a gas and liquid combination entering a separation vessel. A programmable logic control unit module controls a valve and is programmed for periodic release of separated liquid collected within the vessel upon achieving various conditions within the vessel or upon expiration of a pre-established time interval, with separated liquid delivered via an outlet port through a valve controlled by the programmable logic control unit to a storage tank.

This disclosure relates to the adsorption and separation of carbon dioxide in a feed stream (e.g., natural gas) using zeolite ITQ-55 as the adsorbent. A process is disclosed for removing impurities such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen while producing a hydrocarbon product. The process involves passing a feed stream through a bed of an adsorbent comprising zeolite ITQ-55 to adsorb carbon dioxide from the feed stream, thereby producing a product stream depleted in carbon dioxide. The zeolite ITQ-55 has a mean crystal particle size within the range of from about 0.1 microns to about 100 microns. The feed stream is exposed to the zeolite ITQ-55 at effective conditions for performing a kinetic separation, in which the kinetic separation exhibits greater kinetic selectivity for carbon dioxide than for methane or nitrogen. The system and method of this disclosure are particularly suitable for use with feed streams in excess of 10 MMSCFD utilizing rapid cycle PSA operations by tuning crystals size.

The invention relates to a method for removing oxygen from hydrocarbon-containing gas mixtures, characterized in that a hydrocarbon-containing gas mixture containing 50 vol % of one or more hydrocarbons, 2 to 10 vol % of oxygen, and possibly one or more gases from the group comprising nitrogen, noble gases, hydrogen, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and water is introduced into an isothermally operated reactor, in which the oxygen contained in the hydrocarbon-containing gas mixture is at least partially converted into carbon dioxide and water in the presence of one or more catalysts, wherein the specifications in vol % relate to the total volume of the hydrocarbon-containing gas mixture introduced into the reactor and add up to 100 vol % in total.

Provided are apparatus and systems for performing a swing adsorption process. This swing adsorption process may involve performing a startup mode process prior to beginning a normal operation mode process to remove contaminants from a gaseous feed stream. The startup mode process may be utilized for swing adsorption processes, such as TSA and/or PSA, which are utilized to remove one or more contaminants from a gaseous feed stream.

Provided are apparatus and systems for performing a swing adsorption process. This swing adsorption process may involve performing a startup mode process prior to beginning a normal operation mode process to remove contaminants from a gaseous feed stream. The startup mode process may be utilized for swing adsorption processes, such as TSA and/or PSA, which are utilized to remove one or more contaminants from a gaseous feed stream.

The present invention concerns a method (100) for the production of a propylene product (9) in which a component mixture (2) containing propane, propylene and hydrogen is provided using a propane dehydrogenation (10) to which a reaction feed (1) containing propane and hydrogen is subjected, the component mixture (2) or a part thereof being subjected as a first separation feed to a first membrane separation (40), by means of which a first permeate (3) enriched in hydrogen with respect to the first separation feed and a first retentate (4) depleted in hydrogen with respect to the first separation feed and containing hydrogen, propane and propylene are formed, the first retentate (4) or part thereof being subjected to a second membrane separation (50) as a second separation feed, in which a second permeate (6) containing at least the predominant part of the hydrogen of the second separation feed and a second retentate containing at least the predominant part of the propane and the propylene of the second separation feed are formed, wherein the first membrane separation (40) is carried out using a sweep gas (5) containing propane and the first permeate (3) is obtained as a permeate (3) charged with propane of the sweep gas (5) and/or the second membrane separation (50) is carried out using the sweep gas (5) containing propane and the second permeate (6) is obtained as a permeate (6) charged with propane of the sweep gas (5), and wherein the first permeate (3) charged with propane of the sweep gas (5) and/or the second permeate (3) charged with propane of the sweep gas or one or more parts thereof is used in the formation of the reaction feed (1). A corresponding plant is also the subject of this invention.

Disclosed herein is a system for recovering olefins from a vent stream comprising an absorber; and a stripper; where the absorber and the stripper are in a recycle loop; and where the absorber is operative to treat a vent stream with a solvent to remove more than 99 wt % of a halogenated by-product contained in the vent stream and to recover 90 to 95 wt % of olefin molecules present in the vent stream; and where the stripper is operative to remove more than 99 wt % of the halogenated by-products present in the solvent; and where the solvent is recycled to the absorber.