Integrated process and apparatus for recovery of helium rich streams
AssigneePraxair Technology, Inc.
InventorsJoseph M. Schwartz, Khushnuma Koita, Minish M. Shah
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Abstract
The present invention relates a process and apparatus that recovers a helium rich stream from a mixed gas having low concentrations of helium therein. More specifically, the invention relates to an integrated process and apparatus for treating a mixed feed gas from an operating process that produces a fluid product from natural gas containing helium, such as processes that produce ammonia, methanol, or liquid hydrocarbons.
Claims28
An integrated system for recovery of a helium rich stream and a hydrogen rich stream from a feed stream containing 10-80 volume percent hydrogen, 0.1-5.0 volume percent helium, and the balance higher boiling components, comprising:
- (a) routing the compressed and warmed feed stream to a first hydrogen transport membrane system having one or more hydrogen transport membranes for carrying out the bulk separation between a first hydrogen permeate stream and a first helium-containing retentate stream;
- (b) cooling and routing the first helium-containing retentate stream to a size selective polymeric membrane system having one or more polymeric membrane stages to remove the higher boiling components and to produce a resulting second permeate stream composed of primarily hydrogen and helium and a second retentate stream;
- (c) compressing the resulting second permeate stream in step (b) and feeding same to a second hydrogen transport membrane system having one or more hydrogen transport membranes to further recover one or more hydrogen permeate streams and a helium rich retentate product having about 80% helium or higher volume by content.
An integrated system for recovery of a helium rich stream and a hydrogen rich stream from a feed stream containing 10-80 volume percent hydrogen, 0.1-5.0 volume percent helium, and the balance being higher boiling components, comprising:
- (a) routing the compressed and warmed feed stream to a hydrogen transport membrane system having one or more hydrogen transport membranes for carrying out the bulk separation between a hydrogen permeate stream and a helium-containing retentate stream;
- (b) cooling the helium-containing retentate stream and processing same in at least one catalytic oxidation unit to remove substantially all the hydrogen in the helium-containing retentate stream;
- (c) routing the helium-containing retentate stream depleted of hydrogen to a phase separator to remove substantially all the water, and optionally a dryer disposed downstream of the phase separator to remove the remaining moisture;
- and
- (d) routing a dried helium-containing retentate stream from step (c) to a polymeric membrane system having one or more polymeric membrane stages and removing the higher boiling components to produce a helium rich product stream having about 80% or higher content by volume.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.