An oxygen separator for generating an oxygen-enriched gas from an oxygen comprising gas, said oxygen separator comprising: a) an oxygen separator device comprising i) a sorbent material for sorbing at least one component of the oxygen comprising gas; and ii) at least two controllable interfaces, comprising a first controllable interface and a second controllable interface, for controlling the communication of gas between the inside and the outside of the oxygen separator device, b) a processor for controlling the oxygen separator such that a plurality of phases are sequentially carried, amongst them a purging phase; wherein the processor is configured to control the at least two controllable interfaces such that a flow of gas is generated between the first controllable interface and the second controllable interface during at least the purging phase, wherein the second controllable interface is located and/or controlled such that it controls the fluidic coupling between the inside of the oxygen separator device and a volume of non-oxygen-enriched gas during the purging phase.

The present invention is directed to a dryer provided with an inlet for receiving a flow of compressed gas and an outlet for providing dry air, said dryer comprising: a first and a second adsorption vessel connected in parallel, a depressurization unit connectable to the inlet flow conduit of each of said first and second adsorption vessels; whereby the dryer further comprises a flow reducer connectable to the inlet flow conduit of each of the first and second adsorption vessels and whereby said control valves are adapted to be switched in a first state, and a second state.

Provided are apparatus and systems for performing a swing adsorption process. This swing adsorption process may involve passing streams through adsorbent bed units to treat the feed stream to remove certain contaminants from the stream. In the method and system, active valves may be used with passive valves to manage the flow of the streams through the adsorbent bed units.

Provided is an oxygen concentration device which, as an oxygen concentration device having a reduced difference in flow rates of gas which flows through a pressure equalization valve of a pressure equalization path during a purge step and a pressure equalization step, is provided at at least one end side of the pressure equalization valve with a pressure control member having a difference in pressure loss due to the direction of gas flow so that pressure loss of the gas which flows through the pressure equalization path in one direction becomes nearly equal to that of the gas which flows therethrough in the opposite direction.

Disclosed is a method for recovering a volatile organic compound (VOC) using pressure swing adsorption carried out with two beds that includes feeding the VOC to the first bed for adsorption and, while the VOC is being adsorbed by the adsorbent material in the first bed, simultaneously extracting the VOC adsorbed by the adsorbent material in the second bed through executing a desorption step by reducing the pressure of the second bed to cause desorption of the VOC in the adsorbent material of the second bed, executing a reflux step by transferring gas to the second bed and removing the transferred gas from the second bed, and executing a repressurization step by increasing pressure of the second bed to a pressure suitable for adsorption of the VOC by the adsorbent material in the second bed.

The invention relates to a process for modifying the VPSA/VSA/PSA cycle to allow for maximum product pressure without the need for a base load oxygen compressor (BLOC) or base load oxygen blower (BLOB), thus supplying low pressure oxygen (3 to 7 Psig) to the end user while at the same time lowering product costs 10 to 30%. The system of this invention preferably employs larger piping runs from the VPSA to the oxy-fuel control skids, larger piping for the oxy-fuel control skid, larger piping for the VPSA, low pressure drop flow measurements, and low pressure drop check valves.

We provide a method for removing contaminants from a gas, comprising: alternating input of the gas between two or more beds of adsorbent particles that comprise zeolite SSZ-36, zeolite SSZ-39, or zeolite SSZ-45; wherein the gas contacts one of the beds during an adsorption and a tail gas is simultaneously vented from another of the beds by desorption; wherein a contacting pressure is from about 345 kPa to about 6895 kPa and produces a product gas containing no greater than about 2 mol % carbon dioxide, at least about 10 wppm water, at least about 65 mol % of methane recovered from the feed gas, and at least about 25 mol % of ethane recovered from the feed gas; and wherein the tail gas is vented from the feed end of the beds. We also provide a method for removing a contaminant from a gas, wherein the gas contains hydrogen sulfide.

Converting carbon sources that would otherwise be vented to the atmosphere or discarded as waste to one or more products. Carbon sources may be dilute carbon containing streams that are purified to from about 90 vol.-% to about 95 vol.-% carbon compound. In certain aspects, also disclosed are the processes for producing desirable products, such as ethylene, from industrial waste streams.

Systems and methods for using pressure swing adsorption to separate and/or capture resulting emissions are provided. A stream of recycled exhaust gas is passed into a first swing adsorption reactor comprising a first adsorbent material which adsorbs CO.sub.2. An enriched N.sub.2 stream is recovered from a forward end of the first swing adsorption reactor. The pressure in the first swing adsorption reactor is reduced. The first swing adsorption reactor is purged with a portion of the first N.sub.2 stream recovered from the first swing adsorption reactor. The first purge output is passed to a second swing adsorption reactor comprising a second adsorbent material which adsorbs CO.sub.2. A second N.sub.2 stream is recovered from the second swing adsorption reactor. The pressure in the second swing adsorption reactor is reduced. The second swing adsorption reactor is purged with a steam purge.

Systems and methods are provided for combined cycle power generation while reducing or mitigating emissions during power generation. Recycled exhaust gas from a power generation combustion reaction can be separated using a staged complementary swing adsorption process so as to generate a high purity CO.sub.2 stream while reducing/minimizing the energy required for the separation and without having to reduce the temperature of the exhaust gas. This can allow for improved energy recovery while also generating high purity streams of carbon dioxide and nitrogen.