Patent ID: 7285154

Claim:
A process of recovering xenon from a feed gas, said process comprising the steps of: providing an adsorption vessel containing an adsorbent having a Xe/N2 selectivity ratio of less than 75; feeding a feed gas into the adsorption vessel, wherein the feed gas comprises an initial concentration of nitrogen greater than 50% and an initial concentration of xenon of at least 0.5%; evacuating the adsorption vessel by reducing a pressure of the adsorption apparatus below atmospheric pressure to recover a first xenon-enriched gas; purging the adsorption vessel at a purge to feed ratio of at least 10 to recover a second xenon-enriched gas; and combining the first xenon-enriched gas and the second xenon-enriched gas to provide a product gas comprising a final concentration of xenon at least 15 times greater than the initial concentration of xenon.