Patent ID: 6497750
Filing Date: 2002-12-24
Classification: B01D,C10L,Y10S

Abstract:
A pressure swing adsorption (PSA) process for the separation of nitrogen from a mixture of the same with methane which comprises:(a) passing a feed stream comprising said mixture to a first PSA unit containing a nitrogen selective adsorbent so as to preferentially adsorb nitrogen and produce a product stream containing at least 90 mol % methane and a purge stream; (b) recovering said product stream; (c) passing said purge stream to a second PSA unit containing a methane selective adsorbent so as to produce a product stream rich in nitrogen and a purge stream rich in methane; (d) recovering said nitrogen-rich product stream; and (e) treating said purge stream rich in methane so as to remove heavy hydrocarbons from said purge stream rich in methane.