Patent ID: 8388737

Claim:
A method for recovering a gaseous component from an incoming gas stream, comprising: a) flowing the incoming gas stream through a gas-liquid contact apparatus wherein the incoming gas stream is contacted with a cooled lean aqueous absorbing medium thereby transferring at least a portion of the gaseous component from the incoming gas stream to the aqueous absorbing medium thereby forming a lean treated gas stream and a rich aqueous absorbing medium; b) conveying the rich aqueous absorbing medium from the gas-liquid contact apparatus to a regenerator, the rich aqueous absorbing medium being heated by passage through a first heat-exchanger interposed the gas-liquid contact apparatus and the regenerator; c) at an elevated temperature in the regenerator, desorbing at least a portion of the gaseous component from the heated rich aqueous absorbing medium at a temperature to form a heated overhead gas stream comprising the gaseous component and a heated regenerated lean aqueous absorbing medium; d) conveying the a heated regenerated lean aqueous absorbing medium from the regenerator to the gas-liquid contact apparatus by passage through the first heat-exchanger wherein at least a portion of the heat is recovered from the regenerated lean aqueous absorbing medium thereby producing a partially cooled regenerated lean aqueous absorbing medium; e) flowing the heated overhead gas stream through a second heat exchanger to recover a heated stream and a cooled first condensate therefrom; and f) commingling the cooled condensate with the partially cooled regenerated lean aqueous absorbing medium thereby providing a cooled lean aqueous absorbing medium to the gas-liquid contact apparatus.