Apparatus and system for swing adsorption processes related thereto

• US 10,434,458 B2
• Filed: 08/07/2017
• Issued: 10/08/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Exxonmobil Upstream Research Company (Exxon Mobil Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Exxonmobil Upstream Research Company (Exxon Mobil Corporation)
• Inventors: Denton, Robert D., Nagavarapu, Ananda K., Kelley, Bruce T., Johnson, Robert A., Marshall, Bennett D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Dang, Thuan D
• Application Number:
  US15/670,768
• Publication Number:
  US 20180056229A1
• Time in Patent Office: 792 Days
• Field of Search: 585802, 585820, 585823, 585826, 585833
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 15/08 Selective adsorption, e.g. chromatography
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 15/161 Temperature conditioning
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 15/163 Pressure or speed conditioning
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 15/1821 Simulated moving beds
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 2252/204 Amines
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 2253/104 Alumina
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 2253/108 Zeolites
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 2253/116 Molecular sieves other than zeolites
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 2253/204 Metal organic frameworks (MOF's)
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 2256/00 Main component in the product gas stream after treatment
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 2256/22 Carbon dioxide
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 2256/24 Hydrocarbons
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 2257/304 Hydrogen sulfide
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 2257/504 Carbon dioxide
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 2257/80 Water
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 2259/40054 treated before its reuse
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 2259/40081 Counter-current
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 53/0462 Temperature swing adsorption
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 53/0473 Rapid pressure swing adsorption
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 53/0476 Vacuum pressure swing adsorption
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 53/1437 : Pretreatment by adsorption
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 53/1462 : Removing mixtures of hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 53/18 : Absorbing units; Liquid distributors therefor B01D3/16, B01D3/26, B01D3/30 take precedence; packing elements B01J19/30, B01J19/32
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 53/261 : by adsorption
• CPC Class Codes: C10L 2290/542 : Adsorption of impurities during preparation or upgrading of a fuel
• CPC Class Codes: C10L 2290/543 : Distillation, fractionation or rectification for separating fractions, components or impurities during preparation or upgrading of a fuel
• CPC Class Codes: C10L 3/103 : Sulfur containing contaminants
• CPC Class Codes: C10L 3/104 : Carbon dioxide
• 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 an input feed stream through two swing adsorption systems as a purge stream to remove contaminants, such as water, from the respective adsorbent bed units. The wet purge product stream is passed to a solvent based gas treating system, which forms a wet hydrocarbon rich stream and a wet acid gas stream. Then, the wet hydrocarbon rich stream and the wet acid gas stream are passed through one of the respective swing adsorption systems to remove some of the moisture from the respective wet streams.

Claims

1. A cyclical swing adsorption process for removing contaminants from a feed stream, the process comprising:

a) performing one or more adsorption steps, wherein each of the adsorption steps comprises passing a feed stream from a solvent based gas treating system through a swing adsorption system to remove one or more contaminants from the feed stream and to form a product stream;

b) performing one or more purge steps, wherein each of the purge steps comprises passing at least a portion of the purge stream through the swing adsorption system in a counter flow direction relative to the flow of the feed stream to form a purge product stream, wherein the purge product stream is passed to the solvent based gas treating system; and

c) repeating the steps a) to b) for at least one additional cycle.

2. The cyclical swing adsorption process of claim 1, wherein the solvent based gas treating system separates one or more contaminants from the purge product stream to form a wet hydrocarbon rich stream and a wet acid gas stream.

3. The cyclical swing adsorption process of claim 2, wherein performing one or more adsorption steps comprises passing the wet hydrocarbon rich stream as the feed stream from the solvent based gas treating system through a first adsorbent bed unit to remove water from the wet hydrocarbon rich stream and to form a dry hydrocarbon rich stream as the product stream.

4. The cyclical swing adsorption process of claim 3, further comprising

i) performing one or more acid gas adsorption steps, wherein each of the acid gas adsorption steps comprises passing the wet acid gas stream from the solvent based gas treating system through a second adsorbent bed unit to remove one or more contaminants from the wet acid gas stream and to form a dry acid gas stream;

ii) performing one or more acid gas purge steps, wherein each of the acid gas purge steps comprises passing the a first portion of the purge stream through the second adsorbent bed unit in a counter flow direction relative to the flow of the wet acid gas stream to form an acid gas purge product stream, wherein the acid gas purge product stream is passed to the solvent based gas treating system; and

iii) repeating the steps i) to ii) for at least one additional cycle.

5. The cyclical swing adsorption process of claim 4, wherein greater than 95 volume % of the acid gas in the purge stream is recycled to the second adsorbent bed unit from the solvent based gas treating system in the wet acid gas stream.

6. The cyclical swing adsorption process of claim 5, further comprising performing one or more hydrocarbon purge steps, wherein each of the hydrocarbon purge steps comprises splitting the purge stream into at least the first portion of the purge stream and a second portion of the purge stream, and passing the second portion of the purge stream through the first adsorbent bed unit in a counter flow direction relative to the flow of the wet hydrocarbon rich stream to form a hydrocarbon rich purge product stream, wherein the hydrocarbon rich purge product stream is passed to the solvent based gas treating system.

7. The cyclical swing adsorption process of claim 6, wherein the acid gas purge product stream and the hydrocarbon rich purge product stream are combined to form the purge product stream.

8. The cyclical swing adsorption process of claim 6, solvent based gas treating system comprises an amine unit.

9. The cyclical swing adsorption process of claim 4, wherein the dry acid gas stream comprises predominately acid gas.

10. The cyclical swing adsorption process of claim 4, wherein the dry hydrocarbon rich stream comprises predominately hydrocarbons.

11. The cyclical swing adsorption process of claim 4, further comprising passing the dry acid gas stream to injection equipment.

12. The cyclical swing adsorption process of claim 1, wherein greater than 95 volume % of the hydrocarbons in the purge stream are recycled to the first adsorbent bed unit from the solvent based gas treating system in the feed stream.

13. The cyclical swing adsorption process of claim 1, wherein the duration of a cycle of the cyclical swing adsorption process is greater than 1 second and less than 600 seconds.

14. The cyclical swing adsorption process of claim 1, wherein the purge stream is a hydrocarbon containing stream having greater than one volume percent hydrocarbons based on the total volume of the purge stream.

15. The cyclical swing adsorption process of claim 1, wherein the pressure of the purge stream is in the range between 400 pounds per square inch absolute (psia) and 1,400 psia.

16. The cyclical swing adsorption process of claim 1, wherein the duration of a cycle of the cyclical swing adsorption process is greater than 2 seconds and less than 300 seconds.

17. The cyclical swing adsorption process of claim 1, wherein the cyclical swing adsorption process is a cyclical rapid cycle swing adsorption process.