A mobile mining platform for operation on a lunar surface can excavate and deposit regolith into a mill. The mill can agitate at least a portion of the excavated regolith to release volatile gases from the portion of the excavated regolith, without heat being applied to the portion of the excavated regolith. A refinery can perform molecular separation of the released volatile gases. In some embodiments, pressure in the mill can be increased through introduction of a diluent gas into the mill, to improve the efficiency of pumping the released volatile gases from the mill to the refinery. In some embodiments, volatile liquids stored on the platform and/or generated by the refinery can be used to cool the released volatile gases prior to molecular separation of the released volatile gases. In some embodiments, the mill can separate and collect regolith material of different sizes for different uses.

An apparatus and a process to recover high purity helium from a low helium content feed stream are disclosed. The apparatus includes a first dual reflux pressure swing adsorption (DRPSA) unit and a second DRPSA unit, each unit comprising a high pressure adsorption column and a low pressure adsorption column configured in fluid communication with the high pressure adsorption column. The first DRPSA unit is arranged to receive and separate the feed stream into a first reflux product and a first heavy product and circulate the first reflux product and the first heavy product between the high and low pressure adsorption columns to produce an intermediate helium-enriched stream. The second DRPSA unit is arranged to receive and separate the intermediate helium-enriched stream into a second reflux product and a second heavy product and circulate the second reflux product and the second heavy product between the high and low pressure adsorption columns to produce a high purity helium stream and a waste stream containing helium. The waste stream from the second DRPSA unit is recycled to one of a plurality of locations in the first DRPSA unit to increase helium recovery in the high purity helium stream produced in the second DRPSA unit.

The invention relates to a gas purifier that removes moisture and oxygen from inert gases and reducing gases, for example, at sub-atmospheric pressures. The purifier can remove part per million levels of moisture in a gas stream to less than 100 parts per trillion by volume, and has a low pressure drop and a sharp breakthrough curve.

A method of purifying a gas composed of a product gas and one or more impurity gases including combining a feed stream with a second stream thereby forming a combined feed stream, introducing the combined feed stream into a pressure swing adsorption device, thereby producing a high purity product gas stream and an off-gas stream, and introducing the off-gas stream into a membrane separation device, thereby producing a gas stream lean in product gas and a permeate stream.

A method of obtaining helium from a process gas. The process gas is at a pressure less than 15 bar to a first membrane separation stage having a first membrane more readily permeable for helium than for at least one other component in the process gas. A first retentate stream is fed to a second membrane separation stage having a second membrane more readily permeable for helium than for at least one other component in the process gas. Helium is separated from a first helium-containing permeate stream using a pressure swing adsorption to obtain a helium-containing product stream. A second helium-containing permeate stream is recycled to the first membrane separation stage. A purge gas from the pressure swing adsorption is also recycled to the first membrane separation stage.

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.

Techniques for treating a natural gas feed stream include receiving a natural gas feed stream that includes one or more acid gases, one or more hydrocarbon fluids, and one or more non-hydrocarbon fluids; circulating the natural gas feed stream to a membrane module; separating, with the membrane module, at least a portion of the one or more acid gases into a permeate stream and at least a portion of the one or more hydrocarbon fluids into a reject stream; circulating the permeate stream to a distillation unit; and separating, in the distillation unit, the one or more acid gases from the one or more non-hydrocarbon fluids.

Recovering helium from a gaseous stream includes contacting an acid gas removal membrane with a gaseous stream to yield a permeate stream and a residual stream, removing a majority of the acid gas from the residual stream to yield a first acid gas stream and a helium depleted clean gas stream, removing a majority of the acid gas from the permeate stream to yield a second acid gas stream and a helium rich stream, and removing helium from the helium rich stream to yield a helium product stream and a helium depleted stream. A helium removal system for removing helium from a gaseous stream including hydrocarbon gas, acid gas, and helium includes a first processing zone including a first acid gas removal unit, a second processing zone including a second acid gas removal unit, a third processing zone, and a helium purification unit.

A cryocooler-based gas scrubber, or cryocooler-based gas purifier, utilizes the cooling power of a cryocooler to cool and condense cryogen gas forming coalesced impurities which are then filtered through a filter matrix, such as for example a fiberglass filter matrix. The scrubber may further comprise a counter-flow heat exchanger for warming the purified gas prior to dispensing at an outlet for storage or consumption.

The invention relates to a method for producing helium from a source gas stream (1) including at least helium, methane, nitrogen and hydrogen, comprising at least the following consecutive steps: step a): injecting said source gas stream (1) into at least one compressor (3); step b): eliminating the hydrogen and the methane by reacting the stream (4) obtained from step a) with oxygen; step c): eliminating at least the impurities from step b) by temperature swing adsorption (TSA); step d): partially condensing the stream (8) obtained from step c) in order to produce a stream (10) of liquid nitrogen and a gas stream (11) comprising mostly helium; step e): purifying the gas stream (11) obtained from step d) in order to increase the helium content by pressure swing adsorption (PSA) by eliminating the nitrogen and the impurities contained in the gas stream (11) obtained from step d).