A CO2 separation and liquefaction system such as might be used in a carbon capture and sequestration system for a fossil fuel burning power plant is disclosed. The CO2 separation and liquefaction system includes a first cooling stage to cool flue gas with liquid CO2, a compression stage coupled to the first cooling stage to compress the cooled flue gas, a second cooling stage coupled to the compression stage and the first cooling stage to cool the compressed flue gas with a CO2 melt and provide the liquid CO2 to the first cooling stage, and an expansion stage coupled to the second cooling stage to extract solid CO2 from the flue gas that melts in the second cooling stage to provide the liquid CO2.

Processes and apparatuses for recovering a high purity carbon dioxide stream. A first separation zone that may include a cryogenic fractionation column provides the high-purity CO.sub.2 stream. A vapor stream from the cryogenic fractionation column is passed to a second separation zone to separate the CO.sub.2 from the other components. The second separation zone may include a pressure swing adsorption unit or a solvent separation unit. The second separation zone provides a hydrogen enriched gas stream that may be used in a gas turbine. The second stream from the second separation zone includes carbon dioxide and, after a pressure increase in a compressor, may be recycled to the first separation zone.

A system and method for capturing and separating carbon dioxide from mixed gas streams. The gas stream is processed in a structure including a compression module comprising a plurality of compressors, intercoolers and inter-stage condensate separators. The flow path from the compression module includes a plurality of flow separators, gas stream splitters, heat exchangers and at least a first mixer and a first expander. The gas stream is sequentially compressed and cooled to form process condensate and separate it from the compressed gas stream. The gas stream is further dried and cooled to liquefy carbon dioxide and separate it from the non-condensable portion. Selective expansion of liquid carbon dioxide streams provides cooling for the system, and further energy efficiency is achieved by selective recycling of portions of gas streams, allowing for compact equipment and economical operation, while providing for high purity product streams of carbon dioxide.

A pressurized CO.sub.2 rich gas is cooled down to condense at least part of the stream in a heat exchanger. A bulk of the CO.sub.2 is separated by partial condensation and distillation in order to obtain at least one non-condensable gas from a separation vessel. The non-condensable gas is optionally heated up to a temperature lower than −20° C. (membranes performances is greatly enhanced by low temperature operation). The non-condensable gas is introduced into a membrane permeation unit, producing a residue stream and a permeate stream (the permeate stream is enriched in CO.sub.2). The permeate stream is recycled to the process, optionally after compression. The method is auto-refrigerated, i. e. no external refrigerant is used to provide cooling below 0° C.

An apparatus for producing a purified, pressurized liquid carbon dioxide stream includes a distillation column (B) having packing (C) therein and a sump (D) below the packing, the distillation column in fluid communication with the liquid carbon dioxide supply tank for receiving the liquid carbon dioxide stream and the packing stripping volatile impurities from the liquid carbon dioxide stream; a heater (E) in contact with the liquid carbon dioxide stream in the sump (D) for vaporizing the liquid carbon dioxide stream in the sump; a vent in the distillation column (B) from which a first vaporized portion (G) of carbon dioxide vapor in the sump (D) is withdrawn from the distillation column: and a conduit (I) in fluid communication with the sump (D) and from which a second vaporized portion (H) of the carbon dioxide vapor in the sump is withdrawn into the conduit (I) to be introduced into the carbon dioxide vapor feed stream.

The present invention relates to an adsorption process for xenon recovery from a cryogenic liquid or gas stream wherein a bed of adsorbent is contacted with a xenon-containing liquid or gas stream selectively adsorbing the xenon from said 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. After the stripping step, the xenon adsorbent bed is drained to clear out the liquid residue left in the nonselective void space and the xenon molecules in those void spaces is recycled upstream to the ASU distillation column for increasing xenon recovery. The xenon adsorbent bed is optionally purged with oxygen, followed by purging with gaseous argon at cryogenic temperature (≤160 K) to displace the oxygen co-adsorbed on the AgX adsorbent due to higher selectivity of argon over oxygen on the AgX adsorbent. By the end of this step, the xenon adsorbent bed is filled with argon and xenon. Then the entire adsorbent bed is heated indirectly without utilizing any of the purge gas for direct heating. Operating the adsorption bed to near full breakthrough with xenon and displacing the adsorbed oxygen and other residues with argon, prior to regeneration, along with indirect heating of the bed, enables production of a high purity product ≥40 vol % xenon from the adsorption bed and further enables safely heating without any purge gas and ease for downstream product collection, even in cases where hydrocarbons are co-present in the feed stream.

In a method for separating at least one lighter impurity of a gaseous mixture containing at least 30% mol of carbon dioxide, a liquid (101) enriched with carbon dioxide is drawn off into a vat of a distillation column (25), at least part (27) of the liquid enriched with carbon dioxide is vaporized and then heated to a first temperature higher than the boiling temperature thereof in the exchanger and leaves the exchanger at the hot end thereof, and at least part of the vaporized and heated liquid is sent from the hot end of the exchanger at the first temperature, without being cooled in the exchanger and without having been compressed, to the lower part of the distillation column, where it participates in the distillation while enriching itself.

The invention relates to a method for separating a feed gas containing at least 20 Mol % of CO2 and at least 20 Mol % of methane, by partial condensation and/or by distillation, the gas at a pressure of at least 40 bar abs, including expanding at least one portion of the feed gas in a turbine producing an expanded feed stream at a pressure of less than 90 bar abs, separating at least one portion of the expanded feed stream by partial condensation and/or by distillation thus obtaining a CO.sub.2-depleted gas and a CO.sub.2-enriched liquid, wherein the temperature of the expanded feed gas at the outlet of the turbine is below −56.6° C., and wherein the process does not use an external refrigeration source; and wherein the CO.sub.2-depleted gas is introduced into a supplementary separation step, in order to obtain a stream that is more depleted in CO.sub.2 and a CO.sub.2-rich stream.

A method to condense and recover CO.sub.2 from CO.sub.2 containing streams. A first step involve providing at more than one heat exchanger, with each heat exchanger having a first flow path for passage of a first fluid and a second flow path for passage of a second fluid. A second step involves passing a stream of very cold natural gas sequentially along the second flow path of each heat exchanger until it is heated for distribution and concurrently passing a CO.sub.2 containing stream sequentially along the first flow path of each heat exchanger, allowing the water vapor portion of the CO.sub.2 containing stream to condense and precipitate on the condensing heat exchangers. A third step involves passing a water vapor free CO.sub.2 containing stream to a cryogenic heat exchanger to condense, precipitate and recover CO.sub.2. This processes results in the recovery of CO.sub.2 and water vapor from CO.sub.2 containing streams using condensing heat exchangers, chiller, compressor, expander and power generator to recover the low value thermal heat available in CO.sub.2 containing waste streams.

A process for producing liquefied natural gas and liquid carbon dioxide comprising: Step a): separating a natural gas feed gas into a CO.sub.2-enriched gas stream and a CO.sub.2-depleted natural gas stream; Step b): liquefying the CO.sub.2-depleted natural gas stream in a liquefaction unit comprising at least a main heat exchanger and a system for producing frigories, said liquefaction unit comprising at least one refrigeration cycle fed by a refrigerant stream; Step c): simultaneous liquefying of the CO.sub.2-enriched gas stream resulting from step a) in a CO.sub.2 liquefaction unit; wherein the refrigeration necessary for the liquefaction of the CO.sub.2-enriched gas stream and for the liquefaction of the natural gas is supplied by said frigorie-producing system of the liquefaction unit and in that the refrigeration necessary for the liquefaction of the CO.sub.2-enriched gas stream originates from a portion of said refrigerant stream supplying the refrigeration cycle of said liquefaction unit.