Process for separating hydrocarbon compounds
AssigneeLummus Technology Inc.
InventorsSam Weinberger, Justin Dwight Edwards, Julian Wolfenbarger, Srinivas R. Vuddagiri, Iraj Isaac Rahmim
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Abstract
Disclosed herein are processes for producing and separating ethane and ethylene. In some embodiments, an oxidative coupling of methane (OCM) product gas comprising ethane and ethylene is introduced to a separation unit comprising two separators. Within the separation unit, the OCM product gas is separated to provide a C2-rich effluent, a methane-rich effluent, and a nitrogen-rich effluent. Advantageously, in some embodiments the separation is achieved with little or no external refrigeration requirement.
Claims10
A system for providing C2 compounds via oxidative coupling of methane (OCM), comprising:
- at least one catalytic OCM reactor system including at least one OCM catalyst to provide an OCM product gas including at least ethane, ethylene, oxygen and nitrogen, wherein each OCM reactor system includes at least a means to provide a gas mixture including at least methane and oxygen prior to introduction to at least one OCM reactor;
- at least one OCM product gas compressor that receives the OCM product gas and generates a compressed OCM product gas having a pressure of 200 pounds per square inch gauge (psig) or more;
- a first liquid/gas separator that receives the compressed OCM product gas and generates a first OCM product gas stream and a first OCM product gas condensate;
- a turboexpander that receives a first portion of the first OCM product gas stream and generates an expanded first OCM product gas stream and a mechanical shaft work output;
- a second liquid/gas separator that receives a second portion of the first OCM product gas stream and generates a second OCM product gas stream and a second OCM product gas condensate;
- a first separations system that receives the first OCM product gas condensate, the expanded first OCM product gas stream, and the second OCM product gas condensate and performs a cryogenic separation to generate at least a C2-rich effluent that includes at least one C2 compound and a gas mixture effluent that includes methane and nitrogen;
- a second separations system that receives the second OCM product gas stream and the gas mixture effluent and performs a cryogenic separation to generate a methane-rich effluent and a nitrogen-rich effluent;
- a first heat exchanger that exchanges thermal energy from the compressed OCM product gas to the methane-rich effluent, the nitrogen-rich effluent, and the C2-rich effluent;
- a second heat exchanger that exchanges thermal energy from the compressed OCM product gas and the second portion of the first OCM product gas stream to the methane-rich effluent and the nitrogen-rich effluent;
- and
- a third heat exchanger that exchanges thermal energy from the second OCM product gas stream and the gas mixture effluent to the methane-rich effluent and the nitrogen-rich effluent.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.