초록 ▼

An improved process is disclosed for argon recovery from an ammonia synthesis plant purge gas comprising hydrogen, nitrogen, argon, ammonia, and methane. In one embodiment of the present invention, this purge gas is subjected to the following steps: (i) Separation of ammonia at high pressure by adso

An improved process is disclosed for argon recovery from an ammonia synthesis plant purge gas comprising hydrogen, nitrogen, argon, ammonia, and methane. In one embodiment of the present invention, this purge gas is subjected to the following steps: (i) Separation of ammonia at high pressure by adsorption using zeolite molecular sieve material, which is subsequently regenerated by hot purge combined with pressure reduction; (ii) Separation of methane and most of the nitrogen by pressure swing adsorption using a molecular sieve or an activated carbon material having greater selectivity for methane than argon; (iii) Separation of hydrogen for recycle to the ammonia synthesis plant using a high pressure cryogenic distillation column of a membrane separator; and (iv) Separation of the nitrogen by cryogenic distillation means to obtain essentially pure liquid argon product.

대표청구항 ▼

A process for the recovery of argon from a gas mixture comprising hydrogen, nitrogen, methane, argon, and ammonia, the steps comprising: (i) passing said gas mixture to a means for removing ammonia to produce an ammonia depleted gas mixture; (ii) passing said ammonia depleted gas mixture to a pressu

A process for the recovery of argon from a gas mixture comprising hydrogen, nitrogen, methane, argon, and ammonia, the steps comprising: (i) passing said gas mixture to a means for removing ammonia to produce an ammonia depleted gas mixture; (ii) passing said ammonia depleted gas mixture to a pressure swing adsorption means for removing essentially all of the methane and most of the nitrogen to produce a methane depleted gas mixture; (iii) passing said methane depleted gas mixture to a means for removing most of the hydrogen to produce a hydrogen depleted mixture; and (iv) passing said hydrogen depleted stream to a cryogenic distillation column for the separation of an argon product from remaining nitrogen and residual hydrogen.