Integrated process for native CO2 recovery from a sour gas comprising H2S and CO2

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9994452-B2
Application number	US-201314413073-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 13, 2013
Priority date	Jul 6, 2012
Publication date	Jun 12, 2018
Grant date	Jun 12, 2018

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for treating a hydrocarbon feed gas stream containing CO 2 and H 2 S to recover a purified CO 2 gas stream (vii), comprising: a. Separating said feed gas stream into a sweetened gas stream (i), and an acid gas stream (ii); b. Introducing stream (ii) into a Claus unit wherein an oxygen-rich stream is used as a combustive agent in the Claus furnace, thereby recovering a liquid stream of elemental sulfur (iii) and a tail gas stream (iv); c. Introducing the stream (iv) into a Tail Gas Treatment Unit (TGTU) thereby separating said tail gas stream into a CO 2 enriched gas stream (v), and a stream enriched in sulfur compounds (vi); d. Compressing stream (v) exiting the TGTU; e. Passing the compressed CO 2 enriched gas through a CO 2 purification unit thereby recovering a purified CO 2 gas stream (vii), and the device for carrying out said method.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for treating a hydrocarbon feed gas stream containing at least carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide to recover a purified CO 2 gas stream (vii), said process comprising the following steps:
a. Separating said hydrocarbon feed gas stream into a sweetened hydrocarbon gas stream (i), and an acid gas stream (ii) comprising at least carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide;
b. Introducing said acid gas stream (ii) into a Claus unit wherein an oxygen-rich stream is used as a combustive agent in a Claus furnace, thereby recovering a liquid stream of elemental sulfur (iii) and a tail gas stream (iv) mainly comprising carbon dioxide, hydrogen and sulfur compounds;
c. Introducing the exiting tail gas stream (iv) into a Tail Gas Treatment Unit (TGTU) thereby separating said tail gas stream into a CO 2 enriched gas stream also containing hydrogen and sweetened in sulfur compounds (v), and a stream enriched in sulfur compounds (vi);
d. Compressing the CO 2 enriched gas stream (v) exiting the TGTU and performing dehydration of the CO 2 enriched gas stream exiting the compression unit, thereby obtaining a dehydrated and compressed CO 2 enriched gas;
e. Passing the dehydrated and compressed CO 2 enriched gas through a CO 2 purification unit thereby recovering a purified CO 2 gas stream (vii) and a lean CO 2 stream (viii).

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the combustive agent used in the Claus furnace of the Claus unit is an oxygen-rich stream, wherein the amount of nitrogen does not exceed 50%.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the tail gas stream (iv), the CO 2 enriched gas stream (v) and the purified CO 2 gas stream (vii) also contain nitrogen.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the acid gas stream (ii) is enriched in H 2 S by an acid gas enrichment unit located upstream the Claus unit.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the TGTU comprises a feed inline burner or a tail gas heater, a hydrogenation reactor, a quench contactor and optionally an absorber unit.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the CO 2 purification unit is a cryogenic separation unit producing the purified CO 2 gas stream (vii) and the lean CO 2 stream (viii).

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the CO 2 purification unit is a membrane unit producing the purified CO 2 gas stream (vii) on the residue side and the lean CO 2 stream (viii) on the permeate side.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the CO 2 purification unit is an adsorption unit producing the purified CO 2 gas stream (vii) and the lean CO 2 stream (viii).

9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the CO 2 purification unit is an absorption unit producing the purified CO 2 gas stream (vii) and the lean CO 2 stream (viii).

10. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the CO 2 purification unit is a combination of CO 2 purification units.

11. The method according to claim 1 , wherein part of the gas stream exiting the Claus unit is recycled into the Claus furnace before introduction to the TGTU.

12. The method according to claim 1 , wherein part of the gas stream inside the Claus unit is recycled into the Claus furnace by internal recycling.

13. The method according to claim 5 , wherein part of the gas stream exiting the quench contactor is recycled into the Claus furnace before introduction to the absorber unit.

14. The method according to claim 1 , wherein part of the purified CO 2 gas stream (vii) exiting the CO 2 purification unit is recycled into the Claus furnace.

15. The method according to claim 1 , wherein part of the lean CO 2 stream (viii) exiting the CO 2 purification unit is recycled upstream of or directly in the Claus furnace.

16. The method according to claim 1 , wherein part of the lean CO 2 stream (viii) exiting the CO 2 purification unit is recycled between the Claus unit and the hydrogenation reactor of the TGTU.

Assignees

• Total Sa
• Air Liquide

Inventors

• Weiss Claire
• Ghodasara Kamlesh
• Pousse Frederic
• Nehb Wolfgang
• Jungst Eckhard
• Fraenkle Stefan
• Karode Sandeep
• Gerard Sylvain
• Chambron Nicolas

Classifications

• Y02C20/40

  of CO2 · CPC title

• C01B31/20 Primary

  Chemistry & Metallurgy · mapped topic

• C10L2290/541

  Absorption of impurities during preparation or upgrading of a fuel · CPC title

• B01D53/1462

  Removing mixtures of hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide · CPC title

• B01D53/04

  with stationary adsorbents {(B01D53/025 takes precedence)} · CPC title