Oxygen removal
AssigneeJohnson Matthey PLC
InventorsPeter John Herbert Carnell, Martin Fowles, Raymond Anthony Hadden, Suzanne Rose Ellis
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Abstract
A process for reducing free oxygen in a gaseous nitrogen stream comprises the steps of (i) reforming a hydrocarbon to generate a gas mixture containing hydrogen and carbon oxides, (ii) mixing the gas mixture with a nitrogen stream containing free oxygen, and (iii) passing the resulting nitrogen gas mixture over a conversion catalyst that converts at least a portion of the free oxygen present in the nitrogen to steam wherein the hydrocarbon reforming step includes oxidation of a hydrocarbon using an oxygen-containing gas.
Claims15
A process for reducing free oxygen in a gaseous nitrogen stream, comprising:
- (i) generating a gas mixture containing hydrogen, steam, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide by a process consisting of
- (1) autothermally reforming a hydrocarbon with an oxygen containing gas in the presence of steam or
- (2) partially oxidising the hydrocarbon with the oxygen containing gas;
- and optionally performing a water-gas shift reaction to increase the hydrogen content of the gas mixture,
- (ii) mixing the gas mixture with a nitrogen stream containing free oxygen to form a nitrogen gas mixture comprising hydrogen, steam, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen containing free oxygen, and
- (iii) passing the nitrogen gas mixture over a conversion catalyst that converts at least a portion of the free oxygen present in the nitrogen gas mixture to steam,
- wherein the nitrogen stream containing free oxygen is a nitrogen stripper gas.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.