Apparatus and system for swing adsorption processes related thereto

• US 10,322,365 B2
• Filed: 10/04/2016
• Issued: 06/18/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/27/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Exxonmobil Upstream Research Company (Exxon Mobil Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Exxonmobil Upstream Research Company (Exxon Mobil Corporation)
• Inventors: Fowler, Tracy A., Ramkumar, Shwetha, Frederick, Jeffrey W., Nagavarapu, Ananda K., Chialvo, Sebastian, Tammera, Robert F., Fulton, John W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lawrence, Jr., Frank M
• Application Number:
  US15/284,960
• Publication Number:
  US 20170113175A1
• Time in Patent Office: 987 Days
• Field of Search: 95 96, 95117, 95139, 96108, 96152
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 2256/245 Methane
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 2257/504 Carbon dioxide
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 2257/702 Hydrocarbons
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 2257/80 Water
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 2259/40003 Methods relating to valve switching
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 2259/40086 by using a purge gas B01D2259/4009 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 53/0446 Means for feeding or distributing gases
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 53/0462 Temperature swing adsorption
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 53/0473 Rapid pressure swing adsorption
• CPC Class Codes: Y02C 20/40 of CO2

Abstract

Provided are apparatus and systems for performing a swing adsorption process. This swing adsorption process may involve passing streams through adsorbent bed units to remove contaminants, such as water, from the stream. As part of the process, the adsorbent bed unit may include additional space for the valves on the head of the adsorbent bed unit.

Claims

1. A cyclical swing adsorbent bed unit for removing contaminants from a gaseous feed stream,

the adsorbent bed unit comprising:

a housing forming an interior region;

an adsorbent bed disposed within the interior region;

a plurality of valves secured to the housing, wherein each of the plurality of valves is configured to control fluid flow along a flow path extending from a location external to the housing through a conduit and to the adsorbent bed, wherein at least one of the plurality of valves has a valve cross sectional area disposed at least partially outside of an interface cross sectional area of the adsorbent bed; and

a filler material disposed adjacent to the adsorbent bed and configured to lessen the dead volume within the interior region, wherein the filler material is disposed between an interior diameter of the housing of the adsorbent bed and the adsorbent bed unit is configured such that the flow path is around the filler material;

wherein the cyclical swing adsorbent bed unit is configured to operate on a cycle duration period greater than 1 second and less than 600 seconds.

2. The cyclical swing adsorbent bed unit of claim 1, wherein the housing comprises a head coupled to a body portion to form the housing;

and the plurality of valves are secured to the head.

3. The cyclical swing adsorbent bed unit of claim 1, wherein the housing comprises:

a head coupled to a body portion to form the housing;

wherein one or more of the plurality of valves are secured to the head; and

a plate adjacent to the head, wherein the at least one of the plurality of valves is secured to the plate.

4. The cyclical swing adsorbent bed unit of claim 1, wherein the housing comprises a head engaged with a body portion;

and the plurality of valves are secured to the body portion.

5. The cyclical swing adsorbent bed unit of claim 2, wherein the body portion comprises a first body portion surrounding the adsorbent bed having a first inner diameter and a second body portion adjacent to the first body portion having a second inner diameter, wherein the second inner diameter is greater than the first inner diameter.

6. The cyclical swing adsorbent bed unit of claim 1, wherein the at least one of the plurality of valves has a valve cross sectional area disposed outside of an interface cross sectional area of the adsorbent bed.

7. The cyclical swing adsorbent bed unit of claim 1, wherein the plurality of valves are operated via common actuation mechanism.

8. The cyclical swing adsorbent bed unit of claim 1, wherein the adsorbent bed unit further comprises a flow distributor disposed between the adsorbent bed and the plurality of valves.

9. The cyclical swing adsorbent bed unit of claim 1, wherein the housing is configured to maintain a pressure from 5 pounds per square inch absolute (psia) and 1,400 psia.

10. A process for removing contaminants from a feed stream, the process comprising:

a) performing one or more adsorption steps in an adsorbent bed unit, wherein each of the one or more adsorption steps comprise;

(i) opening a plurality of feed poppet valves to pass a gaseous feed stream from a feed inlet conduit to an adsorbent bed disposed in an interior region of a housing of the adsorbent bed unit, wherein each of the plurality of feed poppet valves is in direct flow communication with the feed inlet conduit and configured to control fluid flow along a flow path extending from a location external to the housing through the feed inlet conduit and to the adsorbent bed, wherein at least one of the plurality of feed poppet valves has a valve cross sectional area disposed at least partially outside of an interface cross sectional area of the adsorbent bed, and wherein a filler material is disposed adjacent to the adsorbent bed in the interior region of the housing of the adsorbent bed unit, and the filler material is configured to lessen the dead volume within the interior region of the housing of the adsorbent bed unit, and wherein the filler material is disposed between an interior diameter of the housing of the adsorbent bed unit and configured such that the flow path is around the filler material, (ii) exposing the gaseous feed stream to the adsorbent bed through the flow path around the filler material to separate one or more contaminants from the gaseous feed stream to form a product stream, and (iii) opening one or more product poppet valves to conduct away the product stream from the interior region in the housing to a product conduit;

b) performing one or more purge steps, wherein each of the one or more purge steps comprise passing a purge stream into the adsorbent bed unit to conduct away at least a portion of the one or more contaminants in a purge output stream; and

c) repeating the steps a) to b) for at least one additional cycle, wherein the cycle duration is for a period greater than 1 second and less than 600 seconds.

11. The process of claim 10, wherein the opening the plurality of feed poppet valves further comprises moving a common actuation mechanism to open the plurality of valves.

12. The process of claim 10, wherein the opening the plurality of feed poppet valves further comprises distributing the gaseous feed stream to the adsorbent bed via a flow distributor disposed between the adsorbent bed and the plurality of feed poppet valves.

13. The process of claim 10, wherein opening the plurality of feed poppet valves further comprise linearly moving with a feed actuating mechanism at least one feed valve stem to provide a feed opening between a feed disk element coupled to the at least one feed valve stem and a feed seat secured to the housing of the adsorbent bed unit.

14. The process of claim 10, wherein the cycle duration is for a period greater than 1 second and less than 300 seconds to separate one or more contaminants from the gaseous feed stream to form the product stream.

15. The process of claim 10, wherein the gaseous feed stream is a hydrocarbon containing stream having greater than one volume percent hydrocarbons based on the total volume of the gaseous feed stream.

16. The process of claim 10, wherein a feed pressure of the gaseous feed stream is in the range between 400 pounds per square inch absolute (psia) and 1,400 psia.

17. The process of claim 10, wherein performing the one or more adsorption steps is configured to lower the carbon dioxide (CO₂) level to less than 50 parts per million volume.

18. The process of claim 10, wherein performing the one or more adsorption steps is configured to lower the water (H₂O) level to less than 105 parts per million volume.

19. A method of manufacturing a cyclical swing adsorbent bed unit, the method comprising:

forming a housing having an interior region;

disposing an adsorbent bed within the interior region of the housing;

disposing a filler material adjacent to the adsorbent bed and configured to lessen the dead volume within the interior region of the housing, wherein the filler material is disposed between an interior diameter of the housing the adsorbent bed and the adsorbent bed unit is configured such that a flow path of a fluid flow is around the filler material;

creating a plurality of valve ports into the housing;

securing a valve to the housing in each of the plurality of valve ports to form a plurality of valves, wherein each of the plurality of valves is configured to control the fluid flow along the flow path extending from a location external to the housing to the adsorbent bed, wherein at least one of the plurality of valves have a valve cross sectional area disposed at least partially outside of an interface cross sectional area of the adsorbent bed.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the creating the plurality of valve ports into the housing comprises:

forming a head;

creating the plurality of valve ports into the head; and

securing the head to a body portion to form the housing.

21. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

forming a head; and

forming a plate;

creating the plurality of valve ports into the plate;

securing the plate adjacent to the head and a body portion to form the housing, wherein the at least one of the plurality of valves have the valve cross sectional area disposed at least partially outside of the interface cross sectional area of the adsorbent bed is secured to the plate.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein the creating the plurality of valve ports into the housing comprises:

forming a head;

forming a body portion;

creating the plurality of valve ports into the body portion;

securing the plurality of valve ports into the body portion; and

securing the head to the body portion to form the housing.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the forming the body portion comprises forming a first body portion having a first inner diameter and forming a second body portion adjacent to the first body portion having a second inner diameter, wherein the second inner diameter is greater than the first inner diameter and the first body portion is adjacent to the adsorbent bed.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein the forming the body portion comprises forming a first body portion having a first inner diameter and forming a second body portion adjacent to the first body portion having a second inner diameter, wherein the second inner diameter is smaller than the first inner diameter and the first body portion is adjacent to the adsorbent bed.

25. The method of claim 19, further comprising securing a common actuation mechanism to the plurality of valves, wherein the common actuation mechanism is configured to open or to close the plurality of valves.

26. The method of claim 19, further comprising disposing a flow distributor between the adsorbent bed and the plurality of valves, wherein the flow distributor is configured to distribute fluids to the adsorbent bed.

27. A process for removing contaminants from a feed stream, the process comprising:

a) performing one or more adsorption steps in an adsorbent bed unit, wherein each of the one or more adsorption steps comprise;

(i) opening one or more feed poppet valves to pass a gaseous feed stream from a feed inlet conduit to an adsorbent bed disposed in an interior region of a housing of the adsorbent bed unit, wherein each of the one or more feed poppet valves is in direct flow communication with the feed inlet conduit and configured to control fluid flow along a flow path extending from a location external to the housing through the feed inlet conduit and to the adsorbent bed, wherein a filler material is disposed adjacent to the adsorbent bed in the interior region of the housing of the adsorbent bed unit, and the filler material is configured to lessen the dead volume within the interior region of the housing of the adsorbent bed unit, and wherein the filler material is disposed between an interior diameter of the housing of the adsorbent bed unit and configured such that the flow path is around the filler material, (ii) exposing the gaseous feed stream to the adsorbent bed to separate one or more contaminants from the gaseous feed stream to form a product stream, and (iii) opening one or more product poppet valves to conduct away the product stream from the interior region in the housing to a product conduit;

b) performing one or more purge steps, wherein each of the one or more purge steps comprise passing a purge stream into the adsorbent bed unit through one or more purge poppet valves and conducting away at least a portion of the one or more contaminants in a purge output stream via one or more purge output poppet valves; and

c) repeating the steps a) to b) for at least one additional cycle, wherein the cycle duration is for a period greater than 1 second and less than 600 seconds, wherein at least one of the one or more feed poppet valves, one or more product poppet valves, one or more purge poppet valves or one or more purge output poppet valves has a valve cross sectional area disposed at least partially outside of an interface cross sectional area of the adsorbent bed.

28. The process of claim 27, wherein the opening the plurality of feed poppet valves further comprises moving a common actuation mechanism to open the plurality of valves.

29. The process of claim 27, wherein the opening the plurality of feed poppet valves further comprises distributing the gaseous feed stream to the adsorbent bed via a flow distributor disposed between the adsorbent bed and the plurality of feed poppet valves.

30. The process of claim 27, wherein opening the plurality of feed poppet valves further comprise linearly moving with a feed actuating mechanism at least one feed valve stem to provide a feed opening between a feed disk element coupled to the at least one feed valve stem and a feed seat secured to the housing of the adsorbent bed unit.

31. The process of claim 27, wherein the cycle duration is for a period greater than 1 second and less than 300 seconds to separate one or more contaminants from the gaseous feed stream to form the product stream.

32. The process of claim 27, wherein the gaseous feed stream is a hydrocarbon containing stream having greater than one volume percent hydrocarbons based on the total volume of the gaseous feed stream.

33. The process of claim 27, wherein a feed pressure of the gaseous feed stream is in the range between 400 pounds per square inch absolute (psia) and 1,400 psia.