Pressure swing adsorption processes and systems for recovery of hydrogen and C2+ hydrocarbons

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9630138-B2
Application number	US-201514739315-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 15, 2015
Priority date	Jun 26, 2014
Publication date	Apr 25, 2017
Grant date	Apr 25, 2017

Abstract

The invention involves a process for treating a gas stream from a hydroprocessor that contains hydrogen, methane and C 2 + hydrocarbons. In embodiments of the invention, the gas stream is sent through at least two pressure swing adsorption units to produce a high quality hydrogen stream, a fuel gas stream containing most of the methane and a tail gas stream that is sent to a steam cracker. Lean gas from a gas plant and other refinery off gases may also be processed together with the gas stream from the hydroprocessor.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A process for treating at least one gas stream comprising hydrogen, methane and C 2 + hydrocarbons, said process comprising:
(a) sending said gas stream through a first pressure swing adsorption unit to produce a first purified stream and a second purified stream, wherein said first purified gas stream comprises more than 80% of the hydrogen from said gas stream and at least 60% of said methane from said at least one gas stream and wherein said second purified gas stream comprises at least 90% of said C 2 + hydrocarbons from said gas stream;
(b) sending said first purified gas stream to a second pressure swing adsorption unit, wherein the second pressure swing adsorption unit is in series with the first pressure swing adsorption unit to produce a hydrogen product stream comprising at least 80% hydrogen and a fuel gas stream comprising at least 90% of said methane from said gas stream;
c) sending a stripper gas to a gas plant that produces a plurality of streams including a lean gas stream and combining said lean gas stream with said at least one gas stream; and
d) sending C 2 + hydrocarbons to a steam cracker.

2. The process of claim 1 wherein said at least one gas stream is from a hydroprocessing unit.

3. The process of claim 1 wherein said hydrogen product stream comprises more than 99 mol % hydrogen.

4. The process of claim 1 wherein said fuel gas comprises less than 1 mol % C 2 + hydrocarbon.

Assignees

• Uop Llc

Inventors

• Tsai Robert E
• Zhu Xin X
• Kaye Joel J
• Adamopoulos Eleftherios

Classifications

• B01D53/047 Primary

  Pressure swing adsorption · CPC title

• B01D2257/7022

  Aliphatic hydrocarbons · CPC title

• B01D2257/7025

  Methane · CPC title

• Y02C20/20

  of methane · CPC title

• B01D2256/16

  Hydrogen · CPC title