Process for separating nitrogen from less polar compounds

US6336956B1 · kind B1 · utility

Assignee

• L'Air Liquide, Societe Anonyme Pour l'Etude et l'Exploitation des Procedes Georges Claude · FR

Inventors

• Serge Moreau · Vélizy-Villacoublay, FR
• Bernard Sardan · Le Chesnay, FR

Key dates

• Filing date: Sep 27, 1996
• Grant date: Jan 8, 2002
• Expiry date: Oct 23, 2019

Classification

• Technology area (CPC B): Performing Operations; Transporting
• CPC primary: B01D2257/102
• WIPO field: Chemical engineering
• WIPO sector: Chemistry

Abstract

Process for separating nitrogen from a gas mixture containing nitrogen and at least one gas which is less polar than nitrogen, and employing a differential gas adsorption technique, called PSA process, using an adsorbent of zeolite type, according to which the PSA process is used at a temperature of at least 40° C. by employing as adsorbent a zeolite whose nitrogen adsorption isotherm at 20° C. exhibits a curvature characterized by a parameter C defined by the formula: where q(P1) denotes the quantity of nitrogen adsorbed at pressure P1 andq(P2) that adsorbed at pressure P2, andthe pressures P1 and P2 are defined respectively from the high and low pressures of the PSA cycle in question,C being equal to at least 2.5.