US 5,670,027 AGranted

Method of drying a gas making use of a distillation of a liquid desiccant agent

AssigneeTechnip

InventorHenri Paradowski

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Abstract

A method of drying a gas making use of the distillation of a liquid desiccant, the method comprising the introduction of a stream of make-up liquid containing water and of an organic solvent miscible with water, the solvent being a more volatile solvent than water under the conditions of the method and forming no azeotropes with water, in an intermediate zone of an elongated vertical contact and fractional distillation zone.

Claims14

Dependent claims

A process for drying a moist gas comprising the steps of:

a. feeding a stream of moist gas to be dried at the bottom of an elongated vertical contact and fractional distillation zone, feeding a first stream of liquid containing water and an organic solvent miscible with water to the top of said elongated vertical contact and fractional distillation zone, said organic solvent being more volatile than water under the process conditions but not forming an azeotrope with water, and contacting in counter-current relationship in the said zone an upward flowing stream of said moist gas with a downward flow of said first stream of liquid containing water and an organic solvent miscible with water under fractional distillation conditions of the components of the downward flowing stream of liquid;
b. discharging at the bottom of the contact and fractional distillation zone a stream of liquid enriched with water and having become lean in the said organic solvent;
c. discharging at the head of the contact and fractional distillation zone a stream of dried gas-enriched with vapor of the said organic solvent;
d. cooling the stream of dried gas of the step (c) to condense a liquid phase and separating said condensed liquid phase from the said dried gas;
e. returning the condensed liquid phase to the top of the contact zone of the step (a) as said first stream of liquid;
and
f. feeding a second stream of liquid containing water and organic solvent into an intermediate zone of the elongated vertical contact and fractional distillation zone, of the step (a), the said intermediate zone separating the said contact and fractional distillation zone into a first contact and fractional distillation zone located in the lower portion of the contact zone of the step (a) between the zone of introduction of the stream of moist gas and the intermediate zone a second contact and fractional distillation zone located in the upper portion of the contact zone of the step (a) between the said intermediate zone and the top of the contact zone of step (a), the organic solvent in said second stream being defined as in step (a) and being present in an amount at least equal to that of the organic solvent lost in the discharged streams of the dried gas of the step (d) and of the bottom liquid of the step (b).

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Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

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Abstract

A process for drying a moist gas comprising the steps of:

a. feeding a stream of moist gas to be dried at the bottom of an elongated vertical contact and fractional distillation zone, feeding a first stream of liquid containing water and an organic solvent miscible with water to the top of said elongated vertical contact and fractional distillation zone, said organic solvent being more volatile than water under the process conditions but not forming an azeotrope with water, and contacting in counter-current relationship in the said zone an upward flowing stream of said moist gas with a downward flow of said first stream of liquid containing water and an organic solvent miscible with water under fractional distillation conditions of the components of the downward flowing stream of liquid;
b. discharging at the bottom of the contact and fractional distillation zone a stream of liquid enriched with water and having become lean in the said organic solvent;
c. discharging at the head of the contact and fractional distillation zone a stream of dried gas-enriched with vapor of the said organic solvent;
d. cooling the stream of dried gas of the step (c) to condense a liquid phase and separating said condensed liquid phase from the said dried gas;
e. returning the condensed liquid phase to the top of the contact zone of the step (a) as said first stream of liquid;
and
f. feeding a second stream of liquid containing water and organic solvent into an intermediate zone of the elongated vertical contact and fractional distillation zone, of the step (a), the said intermediate zone separating the said contact and fractional distillation zone into a first contact and fractional distillation zone located in the lower portion of the contact zone of the step (a) between the zone of introduction of the stream of moist gas and the intermediate zone a second contact and fractional distillation zone located in the upper portion of the contact zone of the step (a) between the said intermediate zone and the top of the contact zone of step (a), the organic solvent in said second stream being defined as in step (a) and being present in an amount at least equal to that of the organic solvent lost in the discharged streams of the dried gas of the step (d) and of the bottom liquid of the step (b).

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