A natural gas liquid plant is retrofitted with a bolt-on unit that includes an absorber that is coupled to an existing demethanizer by refrigeration produced at least in part by compression and expansion of the residue gas, wherein ethane recovery can be increased to at least 99% and propane recovery is at least 99%, and where a lower ethane recovery of 96% is required, the bolt-on unit does not require the absorber, which could be optimum solution for revamping an existing facility. Contemplated configurations are especially advantageous to be used as bolt-on upgrades to existing plants.

Systems and methods conducive to the formation of one or more alkene hydrocarbons using a methane source and an oxidant in an oxidative coupling of methane (OCM) reaction are provided. One or more vessels each containing one or more catalyst beds containing one or more catalysts each having similar or differing chemical composition or physical form may be used. The one or more catalyst beds may be operated under a variety of conditions. At least a portion of the catalyst beds may be operated under substantially adiabatic conditions. At least a portion of the catalyst beds may be operated under substantially isothermal conditions.

Treatment of streams containing hydrogen and/or hydrocarbons, and in one non-limiting embodiment refinery distillates, with alkyl carbonates, such as dimethylcarbonate, alone or together with at least one solvent results in reduction or removal of hydrogen sulfide (H.sub.2S) that is present to give easily removed alkyl sulfides and/or mercaptans. In one non-limiting embodiment, the treatment converts the original hydrogen sulfide into alkyl sulfides and/or mercaptans that can be extracted from the stream with caustic solutions, mercaptan scavengers, solid absorbents such as clay or activated carbon or liquid absorbents such as amine-aldehyde condensates and/or aqueous aldehydes.

This invention relates to a process for removing metals, particularly mercury, from hydrocarbon streams by use of an ionic liquid, where in the metal-containing hydrocarbon stream is contacted with an ionic liquid to produce a product hydrocarbon stream having reduced mercury content.

Processes and apparatuses are disclosed for treating a naphtha boiling range stream containing mercaptan compounds. The process includes oxidizing mercaptan compounds in the naphtha boiling range stream to provide a mercaptan-depleted naphtha stream rich in disulfide compounds; passing the mercaptan-depleted naphtha stream rich in disulfide compounds to a naphtha splitter column; and fractionating at least a portion of the mercaptan-depleted naphtha stream rich in disulfide compounds into at least two streams, a light naphtha stream lean in disulfide compounds and a heavy naphtha stream rich in disulfide compounds. The heavy naphtha stream rich in disulfide compounds may be passed to a hydroprocessing unit to convert organic disulfides in the stream to hydrocarbons and hydrogen sulfide. A heavy naphtha stream lean in disulfide compounds can be recovered and routed as desired by the refiner.

A method of producing normally solid, normally liquid and optionally normally gaseous hydrocarbons involves contacting a gas mixture comprising hydrogen and carbon monoxide with a catalyst under elevated temperature and pressure, to convert at least part of the hydrogen and carbon monoxide into hydrocarbons. An effluent is withdrawn from the reactor and subjected to a separation step to form at least a heavy fraction and a light fraction. The heavy fraction comprises normally solid hydrocarbons, while the light fraction comprises unconverted syngas and normally liquid and optionally normally gaseous hydrocarbons. The light fraction is sent to a light ends stripper operating at a temperature of maximally 200 C. to obtain a hydrocarbons fraction comprising normally liquid hydrocarbons. The heavy fraction is subjected to flash evaporation or steam stripping to obtain a hydrocarbon stream of normally solid hydrocarbons (comprising mainly C10+ hydrocarbons).

The present invention is directed to a method for removing elemental mercury from liquid natural gas comprising changing the stabilizer column operating conditions to beneficially transfer mercury from the stabilized condensate phase to the overhead gas phase, where it may be compressed and recycled with the gas going to the existing feed gas mercury removal units.

Systems and methods for cooling and processing materials are disclosed.

Nanowires useful as heterogeneous catalysts are provided. The nanowires catalysts are useful in a variety of catalytic reactions, for example, the oxidative coupling of methane to ethylene. Related methods for use and manufacture of the same are also disclosed.

An in-line L-Grade recovery system having a first in-line separator in communication with a natural gas stream and configured to separate the natural gas stream into a gas stream and a liquid stream, a second in-line separator in communication with the first in-line separator and configured to separate the liquid stream into L-Grade and water, and a storage tank in communication with the second in-line separator and configured to store the L-Grade.