Process for separating hydrocarbon compounds
AssigneeSiluria Technologies, Inc.
InventorsSam Weinberger, Justin Dwight Edwards, Julian Wolfenbarger, Srinivas R. Vuddagiri, Iraj Isaac Rahmim
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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.
Claims20
A process for producing hydrocarbon compounds via oxidative coupling of methane (OCM), comprising:
- combining a feedstock gas comprising methane with an oxygen-containing gas comprising oxygen to produce a combined gas;
- bringing the combined gas in contact with an OCM catalyst in an OCM reactor to generate an OCM reactor effluent stream that includes ethylene and unreacted methane;
- separating the OCM reactor effluent stream into at least a first stream, a second stream, and a third stream;
- expanding at least a portion of the first stream substantially isentropically to produce an expanded first stream and expanding at least a portion of the third steam substantially isentropically to produce an expanded third stream;
- directing the expanded first stream and the second stream to a separations unit to separate at least a portion of a mixture of the expanded first stream and the second stream into a first effluent stream comprising ethylene and a second effluent stream comprising unreacted methane, wherein the separations unit is operated at a first temperature that is less than 25° C. and at a first pressure that is greater than 1 atmosphere;
- and
- separating at least a portion of the second effluent stream and at least a portion of the expanded third stream in an additional separations unit to provide a methane-rich effluent and a nitrogen-rich effluent.
A process for producing hydrocarbon compounds via oxidative coupling of methane (OCM), comprising:
- combining a feedstock gas comprising methane with an oxygen-containing gas comprising oxygen to produce a combined gas;
- bringing the combined gas in contact with an OCM catalyst in an OCM reactor to generate an OCM reactor effluent stream that includes ethylene and unreacted methane;
- separating the OCM reactor effluent stream into at least a first stream, a second stream and a third stream;
- expanding at least a portion of the first stream in a first turboexpander to produce an expanded first stream and expanding at least a portion of the third stream in a second turboexpander to produce an expanded third stream;
- directing the expanded first stream and the second stream to a separations unit to separate at least a portion of a mixture of the expanded first stream and the second stream into a first effluent stream comprising ethylene and a second effluent stream comprising the unreacted methane, wherein the separations unit is operated at a first temperature that is less than 25° C. and at a first pressure that is greater than 1 atmosphere;
- and
- separating at least a portion of the second effluent stream and at least a portion of the expanded third stream in an additional separations unit to provide a methane-rich effluent and a nitrogen-rich effluent.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.