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Process and apparatus for the purification of natural gas and products

  • US 6,368,385 B1
  • Filed: 07/26/2000
  • Issued: 04/09/2002
  • Est. Priority Date: 07/28/1999
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. A process for purification of a source gas in order to eliminate volatile mercaptan sulfur compounds, comprising cooling and drying a source gas, supplying the source gas to an absorption column under pressure, the absorption column receiving a reflux fluid and producing, as a head product, a purified gas with a mercaptan level of less than 30 parts per million, and a base product supplied to a fractionating column which separates the most volatile compounds of the source gas, free from mercaptans, from a gasoline fraction withdrawn from a base and containing mercaptans, the most volatile mercaptans being eliminated at the head of at least one distillation column producing a base end product consisting of liquid gasoline with a mixture of C5 hydrocarbons and heavier hydrocarbons that, after a sweetening process so as to no longer contain volatile mercaptans, are mixed with the most volatile compounds separated at a top of the fractionating column and recompressed from the source gas, to produce a mixture, cooling the mixture, and sending the mixture by reflux to the absorption column as the reflux fluid.

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