Process for separating hydrocarbon compounds
AssigneeSiluria Technologies, Inc.
InventorsSam Weinberger, Justin Dwight Edwards, Julian Wolfenbarger, Srinivas R. Vuddagiri, Iraj Isaac Rahmim
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Disclosed herein are processes for producing and separating ethane and ethylene. In some embodiments, an oxidative coupling of methane (OCM) product gas comprising ethane and ethylene is introduced to a separation unit comprising two separators. Within the separation unit, the OCM product gas is separated to provide a C2-rich effluent, a methane-rich effluent, and a nitrogen-rich effluent. Advantageously, in some embodiments the separation is achieved with little or no external refrigeration requirement.
Claims8
A process for providing at least C2 hydrocarbon compounds via oxidative coupling of methane (OCM), comprising:
- combining a feedstock gas including methane with an oxygen containing gas including oxygen to produce a combined gas;
- contacting the combined gas with an OCM catalyst under process conditions sufficient to generate an OCM product gas that includes ethane, ethylene, oxygen, and nitrogen;
- compressing the OCM product gas to a pressure of at least 200 pounds per square inch gauge (psig);
- reducing water content of the OCM product gas to about 0.001 mole percent (mol%) or less;
- condensing at least a portion of the OCM product gas to provide an OCM product gas condensate;
- apportioning the OCM product gas into at least a first portion and a second portion;
- introducing the first portion of the OCM product gas to at least one turboexpander;
- isentropically expanding the first portion of the OCM product gas within the at least one turboexpander to generate a mechanical shaft work output and produce a first portion of expanded OCM product gas;
- and
- separating the OCM product gas into a C2-rich effluent that includes at least one C2 compound and a gas mixture effluent that includes methane and nitrogen.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.