Industrial gases cryogenic separation

Separation of gases is a very important process in several industries (e.g., chemical, petrochemical, and related industries). Although cryogenics and absorption remain the most widely used processes, the last two decades have seen a tremendous growth in research activities and commercial applications of adsorption-based gas separation. Separation by adsorption is based on the selective accumnlation of one or more components of a gas mixture on the surface of a microporous solid. The separation is achieved by one of three mechanisms steric, kinetic, or equilibrium. Most processes operate by virtue of equilibrium (or competitive) adsorption of gases from binary or multicomponent mixtures [143]. 

Energy efficient gas separation processes, particularly in the chemical and petrochemical industry, have been a subject of increased attention in recent years. This is due to the high energy input, and thus high cost of industrial gas separations by conventional processes, such as cryogenic distillation and/or absorption. Adsorption processes, based on activated carbon or silica gel as adsorbents, have proven reliable, efficient and cost effective for a number of industrial gas separations. The search for a suitable adsorbent is the first step in this [1, 2]. 

Several of the major industrial gas producers are pursuing a variety of promising - fundamentally different - alternatives to conventional cryogenic distillation for the separation of air into oxygen and nitrogen. Among them, both Air... 

Separation of a gas from the gas mixture is a key issue in the various industrial fields hydrogen recovery in petroleum refinery process, oxygen removal to prevent flame, air dehumidification to prevent moisture absorption, dehydration of fine chemical products, for example. Although there are various methods to perform gas separation [membrane separation, pressure swing adsorption (PSA) separation, cryogenic separation], the method using membranes attracts much attention. 

The application of polymeric membranes for selective separation of gas mixtures is becoming a viable alternative to traditional gas separation (GS) technologies, such as pressure swing adsorption and cryogenic separation. Membrane GS results in several advantages, as it does not require any phase transition and moving parts, and can, therefore, be also used in ronole locations [107]. The development of new materials and manbranes for GS is exhorted by the growing necessity for low emission plants and clean industrial processes. 

Typical industries where we find cryogenic applications are the natural gas industry, (export, import, peak-shaving facilities), refineries (LPG), air separation (industrial gases - nitrogen, argon, oxygen, helium, etc.), marine (transport of LNG, LPG). 

Light Hydrocarbons Separation Technologies Site covers proprietary, non-cryogenic, absorption based technology for separation of light hydrocarbons in natural gas, refining and petrochemicals industries, httii.llwww.aet.com. 

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