Patent ID: 6843973

Claim:
A process for recovering at least one rare gas selected from a group consisting of krypton, xenon, neon, and helium from a multicomponent fluid containing oxygen, the at least one rare gas, and at least one hydrocarbon selected from a group consisting of methane, ethane, ethylene, and acetylene, said process using a purifying means and a distillation column system having at least one distillation column, comprising the steps of: withdrawing the multicomponent fluid from an air separation unit adapted to produce at least an oxygen-enriched product and/or a nitrogen-enriched product; feeding a stream of the multicomponent fluid to the purifying means without preconcentrating the at least one rare gas in the stream by an equilibrium separation prior to feeding the stream to the purifying means; forming a hydrocarbon-lean mixture in the purifying means, said mixture containing oxygen, the at least one rare gas, and less than about 20% of the at least one hydrocarbon in the stream of the multicomponent fluid; withdrawing at least a portion of the hydrocarbon-lean mixture from the purifying means; eventually feeding at least a portion of the hydrocarbon-lean mixture to a first distillation column; and removing from the distillation column system a stream rich in the at least one rare gas, wherein the purifying means comprises a catalytic oxidizer bed.