Patent ID: 8529662

Claim:
A process for the removing heavy hydrocarbon components from a gas mixture containing both a heavy hydrocarbon components and methane, which process comprises: a) conducting said gas mixture to a swing adsorption gas separation unit wherein the gas separation unit contains at least one adsorbent contactor comprising a gas inlet and a gas outlet, wherein the gas inlet and the gas outlet are in fluid connection by a plurality of open flow channels, wherein the surfaces of the open flow channels are comprised of an adsorbent material that has a selectivity for said heavy hydrocarbon components over said methane greater than 5, wherein the contactor has less than about 20% of its open pore volume in pores with diameters greater than about 20 angstroms and less than about 1 micron, and wherein at least a portion of said heavy hydrocarbon components is adsorbed into said adsorbent material, thereby resulting in a product stream depleted of said heavy hydrocarbon components; b) collecting said the product stream; c) desorbing the adsorbed gases from said adsorbent, thereby resulting in a waste gas stream rich in said heavy hydrocarbon components; and d) collecting said waste gas stream, wherein said heavy hydrocarbon components are defined as the total of the hydrocarbon compounds in the gas mixture which contain at least 2 carbon atoms, and the product stream has a wt % of methane greater than the wt % of methane of said gas mixture.