Researchers Submit Patent Application, "Moving Bed Temperature Swing Adsorption Process", for Approval (USPTO 20160175760)
By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Life Science Weekly -- From Washington, D.C., NewsRx journalists report that a patent application by the inventors Sadler, Clayton C. (Arlington Heights, IL); Wegerer, David A. (Lisle, IL); Lippmann, Matthew (Chicago, IL), filed on December 18, 2014, was made available online on June 30, 2016 (see also Patents).
No assignee for this patent application has been made.
News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: "Adsorption processes are used for separation of a species from a feed gas stream across a broad set of arts including refining, petrochemical processing, natural gas processing, and hydrogen processing. Temperature swing adsorption (TSA) is a known processing technique in which fixed beds of adsorbent are alternated between low and high temperatures. Selective adsorption of species from a feed gas stream occurs at low temperatures. The adsorbent chamber is then isolated and contacted with heated refrigerant to raise the temperature and strip the species from the adsorbent to regenerate the adsorbent bed. The regenerated bed is then cooled prior to starting another cycle of adsorption.
"However, current fixed bed TSA processes have certain deficiencies, which affect the efficiency and effectiveness of such processes.
"There remains a need for more effective and efficient processes for adsorbing a species from a feed gas stream."
As a supplement to the background information on this patent application, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors' summary information for this patent application: "The present invention is directed to providing effective and efficient processes for adsorbing a species from a feed gas stream.
"Accordingly, in one aspect of the present invention, the present invention provides a gas phase adsorption process for adsorbing a species from a feed gas stream. The feed gas stream is introduced to an adsorption zone having a sorbent. The species from the feed gas stream is adsorbed onto the sorbent in the adsorption zone at an adsorbing temperature to enrich the sorbent with the species to provide species-rich sorbent and deplete the species from the feed gas stream to provide a species-lean gas stream. The species-lean product gas stream is output. The species-rich sorbent from the adsorption zone is passed to a regeneration zone disposed below the adsorption zone. A regenerant gas at a regenerating temperature is introduced into the regeneration zone to strip the species from the species-rich sorbent and provide a regenerated sorbent. The regenerating temperature is greater than the adsorbing temperature. The regenerated sorbent from the regeneration zone is passed to a cooling zone disposed below the regeneration zone. The regenerated sorbent is cooled at a cooling temperature that is below the regenerating temperature, and the cooled sorbent is transferred to the adsorbent zone.
"In an aspect of some embodiments, the adsorption zone, the regeneration zone, and the cooling zone are disposed within a vessel.
"In an aspect of some embodiments, the passing the species-rich sorbent from the adsorption zone to the regeneration zone comprises causing the species-rich sorbent to flow by gravity to the regeneration zone.
"In an aspect of some embodiments, the passing the regenerated sorbent from the regeneration zone to the cooling zone comprises causing the regenerated sorbent to flow by gravity to the cooling zone.
"In an aspect of some embodiments, transferring the cooled sorbent to the adsorbent zone comprises transferring the cooled sorbent from the cooling zone to a surge zone disposed above the adsorption zone, and causing the cooled sorbent to flow by gravity from the surge zone to the adsorption zone.
"In an aspect of some embodiments, transferring comprises controlling a flow of the cooled sorbent from the cooling zone to the surge zone.
"In an aspect of some embodiments, transferring further comprises transferring the cooled sorbent via transport by a carrier gas.
"In an aspect of some embodiments, the species comprises less than 50% by volume of the feed gas stream.
"In an aspect of some embodiments, the process further comprises heating a cooling zone vent gas to the regeneration temperature, and passing the heated cooling zone vent gas to the regeneration zone.
"In an aspect of some embodiments, the process further comprises condensing a regeneration zone vent gas, and passing the condensed regeneration zone vent gas to the cooling zone at the cooling temperature.
"In an aspect of some embodiments, the process further comprises separating the species from the condensed regeneration vent gas before the passing to the cooling zone.
"In an aspect of some embodiments, the feed gas stream comprises a stream taken from the group consisting of hydrocarbon streams, inert gas streams, and aqueous streams.
"In an aspect of some embodiments, the sorbent is selected from the group consisting of aluminas and zeolitic materials.
"Another aspect of the invention provides a moving bed temperature swing adsorption process for adsorbing a species from a feed gas stream. The feed gas stream is introduced to an adsorption zone having a sorbent. The species from the feed gas stream is adsorbed onto the sorbent in the adsorption zone at an adsorbing temperature to enrich the adsorbent with the species to provide species-rich sorbent and deplete the species from the feed gas stream to provide a species-lean gas stream. The species-lean product gas stream is output. The species-rich sorbent is caused to flow by gravity from the adsorption zone to a regeneration zone disposed below the adsorption zone. A regenerant gas at a regenerating temperature is introduced into the regeneration zone to strip the species from the species-rich sorbent and provide a regenerated sorbent, the regenerating temperature being greater than the adsorbing temperature. The regenerated sorbent from the regeneration zone is caused to flow by gravity to a cooling zone disposed below the regeneration zone. The regenerated sorbent in the cooling zone is cooled at a cooling temperature that is lower than the regenerating temperature. The cooled sorbent is transferred to the adsorbent zone. A cooling zone vent gas is heated to the regenerating temperature, and the heated cooling zone vent gas is passed to the regeneration zone.
"In an aspect of some embodiments, the process further comprises outputting a regeneration zone vent gas having a desorbed species as an effluent gas.
"In an aspect of some embodiments, the process further comprises outputting a regenerating zone vent gas having a desorbed species, separating the desorbed species from the regeneration zone vent gas to provide a regenerant gas, and recycling the regenerant gas to the cooling zone.
"In an aspect of some embodiments, the process further comprises outputting a regenerating zone vent gas having a desorbed species, condensing the regeneration zone vent gas, separating the desorbed species from the condensed regeneration zone vent gas to provide a regenerant gas, and passing the regenerant gas to the cooling zone.
"In an aspect of some embodiments, the process further comprises outputting a regenerating zone vent gas having a desorbed species, condensing the regeneration zone vent gas, separating the desorbed species from the condensed regeneration zone vent gas, pressurizing the condensed regeneration vent gas to increase a condensation temperature of the condensed regeneration vent gas; further condensing and further separating the desorbed species from the pressurized regeneration zone vent gas to provide a regenerant gas, and passing the regenerant gas to the cooling zone.
"In an aspect of some embodiments, the process further comprises outputting a regenerating zone vent gas having a desorbed species, condensing the regeneration zone vent gas, separating the desorbed species from the condensed regeneration zone vent gas in a liquid-liquid separation to provide a liquid regenerant, vaporizing the liquid regenerant to provide a regenerant gas, and passing the regenerant gas to the cooling zone.
"Another aspect of the invention provides a moving bed temperature swing adsorption process for adsorbing a species from a feed gas stream. The feed gas stream is introduced to an adsorption zone having a sorbent, the adsorption zone being disposed within a vessel. The species from the feed gas stream is adsorbed onto the sorbent in the adsorption zone at an adsorbing temperature to enrich the adsorbent with the species to provide species-rich sorbent and deplete the species from the feed gas stream to provide a species-lean gas stream. The species-lean product gas stream is output. The species-rich sorbent is caused to flow by gravity from the adsorption zone to a regeneration zone in the vessel disposed below the adsorption zone. A regenerant gas at a regenerating temperature is introduced into the regeneration zone and the species-rich sorbent is contacted with the regenerant gas to strip the species from the species-rich sorbent and provide a regenerated sorbent, the regenerating temperature being greater than the adsorbing temperature. The regenerated sorbent from the regeneration zone is caused to flow by gravity to a cooling zone disposed in the vessel below the regeneration zone. A cooling gas at a cooling temperature is introduced to cool the regenerated sorbent in the cooling zone, the cooling temperature being lower than the regenerating temperature. The cooled sorbent is transferred to a surge zone disposed in the vessel above the adsorbent zone. The cooled sorbent from the surge zone is caused to flow by gravity to the adsorption zone. A cooling zone vent gas to the regenerating temperature and passing the heated cooling zone vent gas is heated to the regeneration zone to introduce the regenerant gas. A regeneration zone vent gas is output, and at least a portion of the species in the regeneration zone vent gas is condensed. The condensed portion of the species is separated from the regeneration zone vent gas, and the regeneration zone vent gas is passed to the cooling zone at the cooling temperature to introduce the cooling gas.
"In yet another aspect of the present invention, a process includes at least two, at least three, or all of the above described aspects of the present invention.
"A process including at least one of the above aspects is beneficial and desirable for the reasons described herein.
"Additional objects, embodiments, and details of the invention are set forth in the following detailed description of the invention.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
"The drawing is a simplified process flow diagram in which:
"The FIGURE shows an example moving bed temperature swing adsorbent (TSA) process for selectively adsorbing species from a feed gas stream."
For additional information on this patent application, see: Sadler, Clayton C.; Wegerer, David A.; Lippmann, Matthew. Moving Bed Temperature Swing Adsorption Process. Filed December 18, 2014 and posted June 30, 2016. Patent URL: http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.html&r=7683&p=154&f=G&l=50&d=PG01&S1=20160623.PD.&OS=PD/20160623&RS=PD/20160623
Keywords for this news article include: Patents, Transferrin, Beta-Globulins, Blood Proteins, Acute-Phase Proteins, Iron-Binding Proteins.
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