Method and apparatus for cooling a flow containing at least 35% carbon dioxide and mercury
AssigneeL'Air Liquide, Societe Anonyme pour l'Etude et l'Exploitation des Procedes Georges Claude
InventorsAlain Briglia, Arthur Darde, Ludovic Granados, Mathieu Leclerc, Frederick Lockwood, Xavier Traversac
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In a method for cooling a flow containing at least 35% carbon dioxide and at least 0.2 μg/Nm3 of mercury, the mercury being in liquid and/or gas form, the flow is cooled in a first brazed aluminum plate-fin heat exchanger from a first temperature to a second temperature higher than −38.6° C. to form a cold flow at the second temperature, and the flow cooled to the second temperature is cooled in a second heat exchanger, which is a tube and shell heat exchanger, to a third temperature lower than −38.6° C.
Claims15
A process for cooling a flow containing at least 35% carbon dioxide and at least 0.2 μg/Nm3 mercury, the mercury being in liquid and/or gaseous form, the process comprising the steps of:
- i) cooling the flow in a first brazed aluminum plate exchanger from a first temperature to a second temperature above −38.6° C. in order to form a cooled flow;
- and
- ii) cooling the cooled flow or a gas derived from said cooled flow in a second exchanger to a third temperature below −38.6° C. to form a second cooled flow, wherein the second exchanger is made of stainless steel, copper, nickel, tantalum or an alloy of two of these metals, wherein the second exchanger is a shell and tube exchanger or a brazed plate-fin exchanger or a plate and shell exchanger.
An apparatus for cooling a flow containing at least 35% carbon dioxide and at least 0.2 μg/Nm3 mercury, the mercury being in liquid or gaseous form, the apparatus comprising:
- a first brazed aluminum plate heat exchanger configured to receive the flow at a first temperature and cool the flow to a second temperature above −38.6° C. in order to form a cooled flow;
- a first phase separator for purifying the cooled flow of mercury thereby forming a gas stream having reduced amounts of mercury as compared to the cooled flow;
- a second heat exchanger made of stainless steel, copper, nickel, tantalum or an alloy of at least two of these metals, which is a shell and tube exchanger or a brazed plate-fin exchanger or a plate and shell exchanger, wherein the second heat exchanger is in fluid communication with the first phase separator such that the second heat exchanger is configured to receive the gas stream from the first phase separator and cool the gas stream to a third temperature below −38.6° C.;
- means for sending a purge gas to the second exchanger and also means for discharging a mercury-laden purge gas from the second exchanger to a storage vessel or to a discharge stack;
- and
- means for discharging a purge stream comprising liquid mercury from the first phase separator.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.