This invention uses a fixed-bed adsorber, interchangeably called a capacitor herein, to process the product stream coming out of a regenerable adsorption system such as a temperature swing adsorption system (TSA) or pressure swing adsorption system (PSA). The fluid stream coming out of this fixed-bed capacitor will have a more uniform composition than the one entering the adsorption system or the capacitor. The fixed-bed adsorber operates in a once-through non-cyclic manner, similar to a conventional fixed bed reactor or adsorber.

According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, a pressure swing adsorption process of a hydrogen production system is provided. The hydrogen production system includes a desulfurization process for removing sulfur components from raw natural gas; a reforming reaction process for producing a reformed gas containing hydrogen generated by the reaction of natural gas through the desulfurization process and steam; and a pressure swing adsorption process of concentrating the hydrogen using a pressure swing adsorption from the reformed gas. In a desorption step of the pressure swing adsorption process, a cocurrent depressurization and a countercurrent depressurization are simultaneously performed.

A system and method of pre-purification of a feed gas stream is provided that is particularly suitable for pre-purification of a feed air stream in cryogenic air separation unit. The disclosed pre-purification systems and methods are configured to remove substantially all of the hydrogen, carbon monoxide, water, and carbon dioxide impurities from a feed air stream and is particularly suitable for use in a high purity or ultra-high purity nitrogen plant. The pre-purification systems and methods preferably employ two or more separate layers of hopcalite catalyst with the successive layers of the hopcalite separated by a zeolite adsorbent layer that removes water and carbon dioxide produced in the hopcalite layers. Alternatively, the pre-purification systems and methods employ a hopcalite catalyst layer and a noble metal catalyst layer separated by a zeolite adsorbent layer that removes water and carbon dioxide produced in the hopcalite layer.

An apparatus is used for concentrating malodorous organic pollutant waste gas by using an adsorption method. The specific solution is to provide a plurality of parallel fixed-bed adsorbers and a set of movable hot air desorption apparatuses which can be connected to at least one of the plurality of parallel fixed-bed adsorbers in sequence, and to respectively complete desorption of all parallel fixed adsorbent beds by means of the movable hot air desorption apparatuses. In the improved solution, the movable hot air desorption apparatus is connected to two adsorption units, and a regenerative heat exchange apparatus is provided on an inlet and outlet pipeline of the hot air desorption apparatus. The desorption process of the regenerative fixed-bed adsorbers is changed from concentrated desorption requiring high-power energy consumption to stepwise desorption requiring low-power energy consumption.

The present invention is directed to an intensified process cycle that utilizes the adsorption beds present to a substantially greater degree allowing the processing of significantly more gas and/or the generation of significantly more product. The elimination of purge steps, reduction in equalization step times, and introduction of overlapping feed and equalization steps which normally cause a degradation in performance for equilibrium-based cycles, frees extra step for other actions to be taken, such as additional equalization steps, etc.

The present invention generally relates to a process that utilizes tunable zeolite adsorbents in order to reduce the bed size for nitrogen removal from a methane (or a larger molecule) containing stream. The adsorbents are characterized by the rate of adsorption of nitrogen and methane and the result is a bed size that is up to an order of magnitude smaller with these characteristics (in which the rate selectivity is generally 30) than the corresponding bed size for the original tunable zeolite adsorbent that has a rate selectivity of >100x.

The present invention generally relates to a pressure swing adsorption process for separating an adsorbate impurity from a feed stream comprising product gas, said process comprising feeding the feed stream to an adsorbent bed at a pressure of from about 60 psig to 2000 psig, wherein said adsorbent bed comprises adsorbent having: An isosteric heat of adsorption of from about 5 kJ/mol to about 30 kJ/mol, as determined by the LRC method, for the adsorbate, and an equivalent 65 kJ/mol or less isosteric heat of adsorption for the product,
wherein the adsorbent has a rate of adsorption for the adsorbate impurity that is at least 10 times greater than the rate of adsorption for the product gas as determined by the TGA method and recovering said product gas with a reduced a level of said adsorbate impurity.

The invention also related to an adsorbent useful in PSA separations, particularly separating N.sub.2 from methane, CO.sub.2 from methane O.sub.2 from N.sub.2 and the like.

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.

The invention provides a system and method that applies novel algorithms and compositions for efficiently adjusting compression, unit turn down, pressure and flows of a pressure swing adsorption unit. The present invention also reduces overall horsepower, increases unit's product gas recovery, maximizes product gas quality and allows for non-disturbance of upstream and downstream equipment in regard to pressure and flow oscillations. Raw gas streams addressed include methane (CH4), nitrogen (N2), oxygen (O2), carbon dioxide (CO2), water (H2O), Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) and non-methane organic compounds (NMOC) gases/vapors. The invention incorporates a CO2 and H2O trim units and provides a VPSA N2 and O2 rejection section.

A method of continuous ozone production using a system of four absorbent beds to separate an ozone and oxygen gas mixture generated in an ozone generator. The beds are operated according to an offset sequence of cycles. Oxygen passing through the beds is at least partially recycled for use in further ozone generation. The concentration of oxygen in the ozone product can be reduced using the system to make it suitable for use in fine chemical applications.