Patent ID: 8317902

Claim:
A method for removing polar components from a process stream in a refinery process, comprising: processing a process stream at an elevated temperature; feeding the process stream to a first adsorber unit and processing the process stream in the first adsorber unit to remove contaminants containing sulfur from the process stream by exposing the process stream at substantially the same elevated temperature to at least one of a metal oxide and a mixed metal oxide to produce a metal sulfide and a desulfurized process stream, exposing the metal sulfide in the first adsorber unit to a stream of oxygen to regenerate the at least one of a metal oxide and a mixed metal oxide; exposing the desulfurized process stream to the at least one regenerated metal oxide and regenerated mixed metal oxide in the first adsorber unit to remove moisture from the desulfurized process stream; feeding the process stream to a second adsorber unit and processing the process stream in the second adsorber unit at substantially the same elevated temperature to remove contaminants containing nitrogen from the process stream.