A method for recovering a helium product or intermediate product, wherein a first natural gas stream containing helium is supplied to a first natural gas processing unit and at least one second natural gas stream containing helium is supplied to at least one second natural gas processing unit, at least the first natural gas processing unit comprising helium recovery means via which the helium product is formed from at least a part of the first natural gas stream. At least temporarily a helium transfer from the at least one second natural gas stream to the first natural gas stream by means of a helium transfer arrangement comprising a membrane unit is performed before the first natural gas stream is provided to the first natural gas processing unit and before the at least one second natural gas stream is provided to the at least one second natural gas processing unit.

A device for separating components of a gas mixture includes a hollow housing having a body portion at a first end, a separable end cap at a second end, and at least one side wall. The housing has an inlet port for the gas mixture, a permeate outlet port for gas mixture enriched with a first component of the mixture, and a retentate outlet port for gas mixture enriched with a second component of the mixture. An insert within the housing comprises a plurality of hollow fibres of a material which are more permeable to the first component than the second. The housing defines passageways for gas to flow between the inlet port and the permeate and retentate outlet ports. The insert is fastened to the end cap at least temporarily so that the insert is withdrawn from within the housing when the end cap is removed.

A gas separator includes a separation membrane complex in which a separation membrane with pores having a mean pore diameter less than or equal to 1 nm is formed on a porous support, and a gas supply part that supplies a mixed gas including CO.sub.2 and another gas from the side of the separation membrane to the separation membrane complex. Then, CO.sub.2 in the mixed gas is caused to permeate through the separation membrane and the support and is separated from the mixed gas in a state in which at least part of a permeation surface of the support, from which a gas having permeated through the separation membrane is exhausted, has a temperature lower by 10° C. or more than the temperature of the mixed gas before being supplied to the separation membrane complex.

A multistage membrane system and a process for treating a gas stream is provided in which the multistage membrane system comprises at least two membrane units wherein a first stage membrane unit comprises a polymeric membrane and a second membrane unit comprises a microporous zeolitic inorganic membrane or a combination of a microporous zeolitic inorganic membrane and a polymeric membrane.

A method for trapping noble gas atoms and molecules in oxide nanocages that includes providing oxide nanocages on a metallic substrate, ionizing a noble gas to form noble gas cations, applying a voltage to the metallic substrate, contacting the oxide nanocages with the noble gas cations, and deionizing the cations to form noble gas atoms and molecules that are trapped within the oxide nanocages. In one embodiment of the present device, polygonal prism organosilicate cages on a ruthenium thin film can trap noble gases.

The invention provides a method and system for separating xenon-krypton mixed gas by hydrate formation process. The system is mainly composed of a gas hydrate generating unit, a heat exchanging unit and a gas-water separating unit: pre-cooled xenon-krypton mixed gas is injected from a bottom of a reaction tower, xenon gas in the mixed gas and water attached to a porous tray generate a xenon gas hydrate; and water is injected from a top of the tower to wet the porous tray, a generated hydrate particle is washed and collected to the bottom of the tower simultaneously to form a hydrate slurry, after passing through the heat exchanging unit, the xenon gas hydrate in the slurry is decomposed to form a gas phase flow and a water phase flow, and then enters the gas-water separating unit, and the xenon gas is separated from decomposed water.

What is disclosed is a mass selective fluid bandpass filter. This filter provides for selecting gas molecules of a specific mass from a gas sample containing molecules of two or more mass species. This filter provides a means of operation of a selecting a predetermined gas from a group of gases or an atmosphere. The mass selective fluid bandpass filter consists of quartz glass, of either natural or manmade origin. This provides method of removing a predetermined gas from the group consisting of: .sup.1H.sub.2, .sup.1H.sup.2H, .sup.2H.sub.2, .sup.1H.sup.3H, .sup.2H.sup.3H, .sup.3H.sub.2, .sup.1H.sub.2O, .sup.1H.sup.2HO, .sup.2H.sub.2O, .sup.1H.sup.3HO, .sup.2H.sup.3HO, .sup.3H.sub.2O, .sup.3He, .sup.4He, O.sub.2, O.sub.3, .sup.12CO.sub.2, .sup.13CO.sub.2, .sup.14CO.sub.2, CO, N.sub.2, NO, NO.sub.2, NO.sub.x, SiO.sub.2, FeO, Fe.sub.2O.sub.3, SiF.sub.4, HF, NH.sub.3, SO.sub.2, SO.sub.3, H.sub.2SO.sub.4, H.sub.2S, .sup.35Cl.sub.2, .sup.37Cl.sub.2, F.sub.2, Al.sub.2O.sub.3, CaO, MnO, P.sub.2O.sub.5, phenols, volatile organic compounds, and peroxyacyl nitrates.

A moderate pressure, argon and nitrogen producing cryogenic air separation unit and air separation cycle having a higher pressure column, a lower pressure column and an argon column arrangement is disclosed. The moderate pressure, argon and nitrogen producing cryogenic air separation unit is configured to take a first portion of an oxygen enriched stream from the lower pressure column, which together with an external source of liquid nitrogen is used as the boiling side refrigerant to condense the argon in the argon condenser. Use of the external source of liquid nitrogen in the argon condenser allows a second portion of the oxygen enriched stream from the lower pressure column to be taken as a liquid oxygen product stream.

An adsorptive material for adsorption of a noble gas can include a mesoporous support material having a plurality of pores and a pattern of metal atoms deposited onto the mesoporous support material.

Embodiments in accordance with the present disclosure are directed to methods and apparatuses used for extracting heavy rare gas. An example method includes passing inlet air through an airflow path of an apparatus, removing carbon dioxide and gaseous water from the inlet air, and cooling the inlet air to a threshold temperature while passing along the airflow path. The method further includes passing the cooled inlet air through an adsorption chamber of the apparatus to adsorb heavy rare gas from the cooled inlet air while the cooled inlet air is in a gaseous state, and extracting the heavy rare gas from the adsorption chamber.