Method for Separating Gases and Vapors in a Cascading Coolant Horizontal Spray Tower

A process for separating a gas and a vapor comprising:

• providing a cross-flow horizontal spray vessel comprising horizontally-situated sections, each of the sections comprising a spray nozzle or nozzles on an upper portion of the vessel, and a collection hopper on a lower portion of the vessel;
• passing a carrier gas, the carrier gas comprising a product vapor, through the sections beginning at one end of the vessel;
• providing a contact liquid through the spray nozzle or nozzles such that the carrier gas passes across the contact liquid and a portion of the product vapor desublimates, condenses, crystallizes, or combinations thereof as a product solid into the contact liquid, leaving a product-depleted carrier gas;
• collecting the contact liquid and the product solid in the collection hopper;
• passing the contact liquid and the product solid to a next preceding upstream spray nozzle or nozzles such that a temperature profile is established across the sections by the contact liquid, as the contact liquid is progressively warmer, such that essentially complete desublimation, condensation, crystallization, or combinations thereof of the product vapor is accomplished across the sections;
• removing the contact liquid and the product solid from a furthermost upstream section as a product slurry;
• removing the product-depleted carrier gas from a furthermost downstream section of the vessel;
• whereby the carrier gas and the product vapor are separated.