An exemplary single bed reversing blower adsorption based air separation unit is configured to follow the O.sub.2 load placed thereon by adjusting flow rates therethrough and power consumption. At least one and preferably multiple pressure sensors sense O.sub.2 pressure within an O.sub.2 storage region downstream of an adsorber vessel. These sensed pressures are utilized to generate control signals controlling flow rates at locations upstream of the compressor, such as at a reversible blower and an output compressor. Control loops for the blower and the compressor are independent of each other and have different time constants. Effective following of the O.sub.2 load is thus achieved without driving the air separation unit into operational conditions outside of design and also maintaining optimal power consumption for the O.sub.2 produced, such that efficiency is maintained over a large turndown ratio.

Some embodiments of the disclosure correspond to, for example, a method for controlling a scrubber containing an adsorbent. The scrubber may be configured to cycle between scrubbing at least one pollutant/gas from a stream of gases with the pollutant/gas being adsorbed onto the adsorbent, and regenerating at least some of the adsorbent and thereby purging at least some of the one pollutant and/or first gas from the adsorbent via a regeneration gas flow. The method may include flowing a stream of gases through the scrubber, the scrubber including the adsorbent and adsorbing at least some of the one pollutant/gas from the stream of gases onto the adsorbent during an adsorption phase over a first time period. The method may also include purging at least a portion of the one pollutant/gas from the adsorbent during a regeneration phase over a second time period with a regeneration gas flow, and cycling therebetween.

An object of the present invention is to provide a pressure swing adsorption gas separation apparatus that can separate strong adsorbate components with high purity without allowing weak adsorbate components to contaminate the strong adsorbate component-storage tank. The present invention provides a pressure swing adsorption gas separation apparatus (100) including a raw material gas-storage tank (1) that stores a mixed gas of a target component and at least one component other than the target component as a raw material gas; a strong adsorbate component-storage tank (2) that stores strong adsorbate components; a weak adsorbate component-storage tank (3) that stores strong adsorbate components; a compressor (4) that compresses a gas of the raw material gas-storage tank (1) or the strong adsorbate component-storage tank (2); a compressor (5) that compresses a gas of the strong adsorbate component-storage tank (3); and four adsorption columns of a lower column (10B), lower column (11B), upper column (10U), and upper column (11U).

A process for separating components of a gas mixture using gas-separation copolymer membranes. These membranes use a selective layer made from copolymers of an amorphous perfluorinated dioxolane and a fluorovinyl monomer. The resulting membranes have superior selectivity performance for gas pairs of interest while maintaining fast gas permeance compared to membranes prepared using conventional perfluoropolymers, such as Teflon AF, Hyflon AD, and Cytop.

The present application relates to a process comprising the steps ofproviding a purge stream from a synthesis section,preheating at least part of said purge stream,adding steam to the preheated purge stream to obtain a first mixed stream,passing the first mixed stream through a shift conversion step thereby obtaining a conversion product stream,passing at least part of the conversion product stream through a H.sub.2 separation step producing a H.sub.2 enriched stream and a H.sub.2 depleted waste stream, and returning at least part of said H.sub.2 enriched stream to and/or upstream the synthesis section.

Compositions of and methods for separating components of a natural gas stream are disclosed. In one embodiment, the method includes receiving an inlet stream comprising natural gas, the inlet stream having an inlet pressure, and the inlet stream further comprising methane, helium, and an impurity. The method includes allowing the inlet stream to contact a block co-polyimide membrane, the block co-polyimide membrane exhibiting both higher permeability for and higher selectivity for the helium and the impurity than for the methane at the inlet pressure of the inlet stream and separating the methane from the helium and the impurity to create a retentate stream, the retentate stream comprising an increased concentration of methane relative to the inlet stream. The method also includes creating a permeate stream comprising the helium and the impurity at an increased concentration of helium and impurity relative to a concentration of helium and impurity in the inlet stream.

A ventilation system operating method for a service personnel-accessible operations room or control room in a nuclear plant or nuclear power plant enables a supply of decontaminated fresh air at least for a few hours in the event of serious incidents involving the release of radioactive activity. The content of radioactive inert gases in the fresh air supplied to the operations room should be as low as possible. Therefore, an air supply line is guided from an external inlet to the operations room, a first fan and a first inert gas adsorber column are connected into the air supply line, an air discharge line is guided from the operations room to an external outlet, a second fan and a second inert gas adsorber column are connected into the air discharge line, and a switchover device interchanges the roles of the first and second inert gas adsorber columns.

A method of separating oxygen from an oxygen-containing fluid stream is disclosed, the method including the step of contacting the oxygen-containing fluid stream with an oxygen-selective zeolite adsorbent comprising at least 90% chabazite, wherein the chabazite is a single phase chabazite having an Si/Al ratio of 1.2 to 1.8. The single phase chabazite may comprise a mixture of at least two types of cations.

In a first aspect, the invention relates to a sealing method for the sealing of a metal sleeve to an inorganic membrane, said method comprising the steps of providing a metallic sleeve to cover at least part of the inorganic membrane, and applying graphite tape onto at least part of the inorganic membrane to create a graphite sleeve in between the inorganic membrane and the metallic sleeve. The present invention further relates to a sealed inorganic membrane, and to the use of a sealed inorganic membrane for a gas separation process in a membrane reactor or as a membrane reactor.

A method including exposing a gas mixture comprising a noble gas to a metal organic framework (MOF), including an organic electron donor and an adsorbent bed operable to adsorb a noble gas from a mixture of gases, the adsorbent bed including a metal organic framework (MOF) including an organic electron donor.