Disclosed are methods for removing acid gas from a feed stream of natural gas including acid gas, methane and ethane. The methods include alternating input of the feed stream between at least two beds of adsorbent particles comprising zeolite SSZ-13 such that the feed stream contacts one of the at least two beds at a given time in an adsorption step and a tail gas stream is simultaneously vented from another of the at least two beds in a desorption step. The contact occurs at a feed pressure of from about 50 to about 1000 psia for a sufficient period of time to preferentially adsorb acid gas from the feed stream. A product gas stream is produced containing no greater than about 2 mol % carbon dioxide and at least about 65 mol % of methane recovered from the feed stream and at least about 25 mol % of ethane recovered from the feed stream. The feed stream is input at a feed end of each bed. The product gas stream is removed from a product end of each bed. The tail gas stream is vented from the feed end of each bed. The methods require lower vacuum power consumption and allow improved hydrocarbon recoveries compared with known methods.

According to one aspect of the present invention, a pressure swing adsorption (PSA) device includes an adsorption tower configured to introduce hydrogen gas and adsorb impurity components in the hydrogen gas by using a pressure swing adsorption (PSA) method, an adsorbent of one layer made of activated carbon or an adsorbent of two layers in which activated carbon and zeolite are stacked being disposed in the adsorption tower, the hydrogen gas containing carbon monoxide (CO) of 0.5 vol % or more and 6.0 vol % or less and methane (CH.sub.4) of 0.4 vol % or more and 10 vol % or less as the impurity components; and a densitometer configured to detect a concentration of CO in the hydrogen gas discharged from the adsorption tower, wherein the impurity components are adsorbed and removed to cause the CO concentration measured by the densitometer to fall below a threshold.

Pressure swing adsorption process for reducing fluctuations in the flow rate of tail gas from the adsorption unit. The flow rate of the stream of blowdown gas is regulated responsive signals from a sensor measuring the pressure and/or flow rate of the tail gas comprising the blowdown gas and purge gas effluent before the tail gas is introduced into a surge vessel.

The invention includes methods for removing higher acetylenes from a gaseous stream that includes a hydrogen fraction and a non-hydrogen fraction, wherein the gaseous stream includes less than about 4% in total of diacetylene and vinylacetylene, where the method includes the following steps: (i) an adsorption that passes the gaseous stream at a preselected superficial linear gas velocity across an adsorption bed supported within an enclosure, the adsorption bed containing a crystalline porous ceramic adsorbent to adsorb the higher acetylenes onto the adsorbent, thereby producing a saturated adsorption bed and a purified gaseous stream including less than about 25 ppm of diacetylene that regenerates the saturated adsorbent bed by passing a regeneration gas across the saturated adsorption bed to desorb the higher acetylenes retained thereupon, thereby producing a regenerated adsorbent bed and a contaminated gas stream bearing the higher acetylenes; and (iii) a purging step that removes the contaminated gas stream from the enclosure. The invention also includes systems for removing diacetylene and vinylacetylene from a hydrogen-dominant acetylene-hydrogen gaseous stream.

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 relates to a method for managing a PSA unit having at least N adsorbers arranged in pairs, where each pair is designed to be able to be selectively isolated, a control device, and a plurality of interfaces for accessing the instrumentation of each adsorber. When a first pair is fluidically isolated, the first pair having a first and a second adsorber, the isolating of a third adsorber includes setting the control device to control N-4 adsorbers, fluidically isolating a second pair having the third and a fourth adsorber, isolating one of the first and second adsorbers and the third adsorber, configuring the interfaces so as to swap over the instrumentation of the other of the first and second adsorbers and the instrumentation of the fourth adsorber, placing the first and second pairs in fluidic communication, and setting the control device to control N-2 adsorbers.

The present invention relates to a process cycle that allows for the stable production of mid-range purity oxygen from air, using traditional system designs. Typical cycles have a limited production benefit when generating O.sub.2 at lower than 90% purity, however they suffer a production loss at higher purity. The process cycles of the invention are capable of producing significantly more contained O.sub.2 at a lower purity. In addition to enhanced production capacity, lower power consumed per mass of product and more stable product purity and flow are realized by the process of the invention compared to traditional alternatives.

A method and system for manufacturing and using a self-supporting structure in processing unit for adsorption or catalytic processes. The self-supporting structure has greater than 50% by weight of the active material in the self-supporting structure to provide an open-celled structure providing access to the active material. The self-supporting structures, which may be disposed in a processing unit, may be used in swing adsorption processes and other processes to enhance the recovery of hydrocarbons.

Disclosed herein is a stator plate for a rotary bed PSA apparatus that has an exhaust slot that has first and second sections for receiving blowdown and purge exhaust gas streams, the sections being separated by a flow restriction that restricts but does not full prevent gas flow between the sections, or that has separate exhaust slots for separately receiving the blowdown and purge exhaust gas streams. Also disclosed is pressure swing adsorption (PSA) apparatus including such a stator plate, and a rotary bed PSA process using such an apparatus.

A method and system for manufacturing and using a self-supporting structure in processing unit for adsorption or catalytic processes. The self-supporting structure has greater than 50% by weight of the active material in the self-supporting structure to provide an open-celled structure providing access to the active material. The self-supporting structures, which may be disposed in a processing unit, may be used in swing adsorption processes and other processes to enhance the recovery of hydrocarbons.