Patent ID: 6192706
Filing Date: 2001-02-27
Classification: F25J

Abstract:
A method for producing carbon monoxide comprising:(A) providing a feed comprising carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, hydrogen and hydrocarbons, and passing the feed through a membrane separation unit to separate the feed into a permeate, which comprises some of the hydrogen and carbon dioxide of the feed, and into retentate which has a higher concentration of carbon monoxide than does the feed;(B) cooling the retentate to remove essentially all of the remaining carbon dioxide, and passing the resulting fluid comprising carbon monoxide, hydrogen and hydrocarbons into a first cryogenic separation column as first column feed;(C) separating the first column feed in the first cryogenic separation column into hydrogen top fluid and into bottom fluid comprising carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons;(D) passing bottom fluid into a second cryogenic separation column and separating the bottom fluid in the second cryogenic separation column into carbon monoxide vapor and hydrocarbon liquid; and(E) recovering carbon monoxide vapor from the upper portion of the second cryogenic separation column as product carbon monoxide.