Heavy hydrocarbon removal process
AssigneeBASF SE
InventorsWilliam Bachop Dolan, Roger Wyatt
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A process for removing heavy hydrocarbons from a natural gas stream comprises passing the natural gas stream thought a TSA adsorbent unit to adsorb heavy hydrocarbons, regenerating the TSA adsorbent by heating to form a contaminant-containing gas phase, cooling the contaminated gas phase to separate water and heavy hydrocarbon liquids to form a third gas phase and directing the third gas phase to a PSA unit to adsorb heavy hydrocarbons from the third gas phase. The product from the PSA unit can be sent to pipeline or recycled to the TSA unit for further hydrocarbon removal and recovery.
Claims22
A process for removing heavy hydrocarbons from a natural gas stream comprising:
- directing a natural gas stream containing water and C5+ hydrocarbons to the adsorbent bed of a thermal swing adsorption (TSA) unit, so as to adsorb at least a portion of the water and O5+ hydrocarbons from said natural gas feedstream to produce a first product gas stream which has a reduced level of water and C5+ hydrocarbons than said feedstream, regenerating said adsorbent bed by heating to remove adsorbed water and C5+ hydrocarbons and form a second gas stream having a higher concentration of water and C5+ hydrocarbons than said feedstream;
- cooling said second gas stream to form liquid water and liquid C5+ hydrocarbons and separating said liquids from said second gas stream to form a third gas stream;
- directing said third gas stream to an adsorbent bed of a pressure swing adsorption (PSA) unit so as to adsorb C5+ hydrocarbons from said third gas stream and yield a high pressure second product gas stream having a lower concentration of C5+ hydrocarbons than said third gas stream;
- regenerating said adsorbent bed in said PSA unit by lowering the pressure and forming a low pressure contaminant gas stream containing C5+ hydrocarbons.
A process of removing heavy hydrocarbons from a natural gas stream containing a major amount of methane and a minor amount of heavy hydrocarbons comprising:
- directing said natural gas stream to an adsorbent bed of a pressure swing adsorption (PSA) unit so as to adsorb C5+ hydrocarbons from said natural gas stream and yield a product gas stream having a higher concentration of methane and lower concentration of C5+ hydrocarbons than said natural gas stream;
- said PSA unit adsorbing at a temperature of at least 65° C. and a pressure of at least 500 psia;
- regenerating said adsorbent bed in said PSA unit by lowering the pressure and forming a low pressure contamination gas stream containing C5+ hydrocarbons.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.