Process and apparatus for treating a feed gas
AssigneeAir Products and Chemicals, Inc.
InventorsMohammad Ali Kalbassi, Paul Higginbotham
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Abstract
A process and an apparatus related to the reduction of the level of a component in a feed gas such as air involving passing the gas to at least three parallel thermal swing adsorption zones charged with an adsorbent and operating according to an adsorption cycle, wherein the cycle of each zone is phased with respect to that of the other zones so that at any point during the cycle, the number of zones in the adsorption step is greater than the number of zones not in the adsorption step.
Claims27
A process for the reduction of the level of at least one undesired component in a feed gas comprising passing the feed gas to at least three parallel thermal swing adsorption zones, each zone containing an adsorbent and being operated in an adsorption cycle which comprises an adsorption step to remove or to reduce the level of the component from the feed gas and in which the feed gas is fed continuously to the adsorption zone during the adsorption step, depressurisation of the adsorption zone, a regeneration step to desorb the adsorbed component and repressurisation of the adsorption zone, wherein the adsorption cycle of each zone is phased with respect to that of the other zones so that at any point during the adsorption cycle, the number of zones in the adsorption step is greater than the number of zones not in the adsorption step.
A thermal swing adsorption apparatus for conducting thermal swing adsorption of at least one undesired component in a feed gas, the apparatus comprising at least three parallel thermal swing adsorption zones adapted to receive an adsorbent bed and means for controlling the flow of the teed gas through the at least three zones such that each bed undergoes repeated adsorption cycles which cycle comprises an adsorption step to remove or to reduce the level of the component from the feed gas and in which the feed gas is fed continuously to the adsorption zone during the adsorption step, depressurization of the zone, a regeneration step to desorb the adsorbed component and repressurization of the adsorption zone, and wherein the adsorption cycle of each zone is phased with respect to that of the other zones so that in use, the number of zones in the adsorption step is greater than the number of zones not in the adsorption step.
A thermal swing adsorption apparatus comprising at least three adsorption vessels, a feed gas inlet assembly in fluid communication with each vessel, an outlet assembly in fluid communication with the at least three vessels being arranged in parallel paths, flow control means to permit the feed gas to pass through each vessel and to the outlet assembly, a regeneration assembly comprising a conduit in fluid communication with the outlet assembly whereby a regeneration gas is able to be passed into each vessel and a heater to heat the regeneration gas, the flow control means and the regeneration assembly being arranged so that each vessel, in use, repeatedly undergoes an adsorption cycle comprising an adsorption step, depressurization, a regeneration step and repressurization and the adsorption cycle for each vessel is out of phase with the cycle for all the other vessels provided that, in use, at least two vessels are in the adsorption step at any time and the flow control means feeds the feed gas continuously to the adsorption zone during the adsorption step.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.