A process is disclosed for increasing hydrogen recovery in an integrated refinery and petrochemical complex in which natural gas is used as a co-purge gas in a pressure swing adsorption unit. This natural gas is recovered in tail gas from the pressure swing adsorption unit. This process is useful for refinery off-gas and partial oxidation feeds.

A highly efficient combined cooling, heating, and power (CCHP) system is capable of providing 100% utilization of an energy generator used by the system by distributing thermal and electrical outputs of the energy generator to loads and/or other storage apparatuses. The CCHP system includes an energy generator, which can be a fuel cell and a waste heat recovery unit that assists in recovering thermal energy from the energy generator and returning it to the energy generator, and/or providing it to a thermal load, or a storage as needed or desired.

An adsorption process for xenon recovery from a cryogenic liquid or gas stream is described wherein a bed of adsorbent is contacted with the aforementioned xenon containing liquid or gas stream and adsorbs the xenon selectively from this fluid stream. The adsorption bed is operated to at least near full breakthrough with xenon to enable a deep rejection of other stream components, prior to regeneration using the temperature swing method. Operating the adsorption bed to near full breakthrough with xenon, prior to regeneration, enables production of a high purity product from the adsorption bed and further enables oxygen to be used safely as a purge gas, even in cases where hydrocarbons are co-present in the feed stream.

A multi-stage adsorptive gas separation process and system for separating at least a first component from a multi-component fluid mixture employs at least a first and second adsorption stage, for reducing overall steam and energy consumption for regeneration of an adsorbent material. In the adsorptive gas separation system, a first-stage adsorptive gas separation process and separator, and a second-stage adsorptive gas separation process and separator, each employ one regenerating stream, where the regenerating streams have different regeneration mediums.

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.

A method of obtaining helium from a helium-containing feed gas. Helium-containing feed gas is fed to a prepurifying unit that uses a pressure swing adsorption process to remove undesirable components from the helium-containing feed gas and obtain a prepurified feed gas. The prepurified feed gas is fed to a membrane unit connected downstream of the prepurifying unit and that has at least one membrane more readily permeable to helium than to at least one further component present in the prepurified feed gas. A pressurized low-helium retentate stream that has not passed through the membrane is fed to the prepurifying unit. The pressurized low-helium retentate is used to displace helium-rich gas from an adsorber that is to be regenerated into an already regenerated adsorber.

Methods and systems are provided for diagnosing a high load purge line of a boosted engine system for undesired evaporative emissions. In one example, a method for diagnosing the high load purge line includes drawing vacuum in the high load purge line under natural aspiration conditions and concurrently purging a fuel vapor canister. In this way, the high load purge line may be diagnosed for undesired evaporative emissions without disrupting a canister purge schedule.

Processes and systems for upgrading a hydrocarbon. In some embodiments, the process for upgrading a hydrocarbon, can include contacting a gas that can include one or more C.sub.1-C.sub.4 hydrocarbons and carbonyl sulfide with a sorbent under conditions sufficient to cause at least a portion of the carbonyl sulfide to sorb onto the sorbent to produce a treated gas lean in carbonyl sulfide and a sorbent rich in carbonyl sulfide. The process can also include contacting the sorbent rich in carbonyl sulfide with a regenerating gas that can include molecular hydrogen, one or more C.sub.1-C.sub.4 hydrocarbons, or a mixture thereof to produce a regenerated sorbent and a desorb effluent that can include a sulfur-based contaminant. The process can also include introducing at least a portion of the desorb effluent into a pyrolysis zone of a steam cracker and recovering a steam cracker effluent from the pyrolysis zone.

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.

A method for separating ozone from a mixture of oxygen and ozone by feeding the mixture to at least one adsorbent bed containing an adsorbent material for adsorbing ozone. The adsorbent bed can be one of four adsorbent beds in a continuous adsorption cycle for producing ozone recycling the non-adsorbed oxygen together with make-up oxygen to the ozone generator or using it as a purge gas. An external purge gas is used to desorb the ozone to the customer process. With four beds present, for most of the time, two beds are in adsorption mode while the other two beds are in regeneration/production mode.