Patent ID: 8535415

Claim:
A process for recovering high purity hydrogen from a feed gas containing less than 50 mole % hydrogen comprising the steps of: a) cooling a feed gas in one or more heat exchangers and producing a partially condensed feed gas; b) separating the partially condensed feed gas to produce a hydrogen-rich stream and a hydrocarbon-rich stream; c) generating refrigeration by Joule-Thomson expansion of the hydrocarbon-rich stream and producing a colder hydrocarbon-rich stream; d) recovering refrigeration from the colder hydrocarbon-rich stream to cool the feed gas in step (a); e) recovering refrigeration from the hydrogen-rich stream to cool the feed gas in step (a); f) recovering a gas stream containing at least 60 mole % hydrogen from the hydrogen-rich stream; and g) feeding the gas stream containing at least 60 mole % hydrogen to a pressure swing adsorption (PSA) system and recovering high purity hydrogen product with or without feeding an external hydrogen-containing stream to the PSA system.