Patent ID: 8029603

Claim:
A method comprising: (a) providing a gas mixture via a first gas line, the gas mixture comprising a product gas and a reactant gas; (b) performing a cycle which comprises repeatedly performing the following steps in each of at least three adsorber vessels, each of the at least three adsorber vessels including an adsorbent having a greater adsorption affinity for the product gas than for the reactant gas: (i) feeding the gas mixture from the first gas line into the adsorber vessel and routing gas that exits the adsorber vessel to a recovery line, the recovery line being in fluid communication with the first gas line; (ii) feeding a first purge gas through the adsorber vessel and routing gas that exits the adsorber vessel to a product gas line, the gas exiting the adsorber vessel comprising the first purge gas and the product gas; and (iii) feeding the feed gas mixture through the adsorber vessel and routing gas that exits the adsorber vessel into another one of the at least three adsorber vessels that is performing step (b)(ii); and (c) overlapping the performance of step (b)(ii) in one of the at least three adsorber vessels with the performance of step (b)(ii) in another one of the at least three adsorber vessels.