Patent ID: 9623370
Date: 2017-04-18
CPC Classifications: B01D,B01J,C01B,Y02P

Claim:
1. An integrated system for recovery of a helium rich stream and a hydrogen rich stream from a feed stream containing 10-80 volume percent hydrogen, 0.1-5.0 volume percent helium, and the balance higher boiling components, comprising: (a) routing the compressed and warmed feed stream to a first hydrogen transport membrane system having one or more hydrogen transport membranes for carrying out the bulk separation between a first hydrogen permeate stream and a first helium-containing retentate stream; (b) cooling and routing the first helium-containing retentate stream to a size selective polymeric membrane system having one or more polymeric membrane stages to remove the higher boiling components and to produce a resulting second permeate stream composed of primarily hydrogen and helium and a second retentate stream; (c) compressing the resulting second permeate stream in step (b) and feeding same to a second hydrogen transport membrane system having one or more hydrogen transport membranes to further recover one or more hydrogen permeate streams and a helium rich retentate product having about 80% helium or higher volume by content.