Patent ID: 6368385
Filing Date: 2002-04-09
Classification: B01D,C10L,F25J

Abstract:
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column which separates the most volatile compounds of the source gas, free from mercaptans, from a gasoline fraction withdrawn from a base and containing mercaptans, the most volatile mercaptans being eliminated at the head of at least one distillation column producing a base end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.