Ethylene separation with temperature swing adsorption

摘要

A process for component separation in a polymer production system, comprising (a) separating a polymerization product stream into a gas stream and a polymer stream, (b) contacting the polymer stream with a purge gas to yield a purged polymer and a spent purge gas comprising purge gas, ethylene, and ethane, (c) contacting the spent purge gas with a temperature swing adsorber contactor (TSAC) to yield a loaded TSAC, wherein at least a portion of the ethylene is adsorbed by the TSAC at a first temperature to yield TSAC-adsorbed ethylene, wherein a portion of the ethane is adsorbed by the TSAC at the first temperature to yield TSAC-adsorbed ethane, (d) heating the loaded TSAC to a second temperature to yield a regenerated TSAC, and (e) contacting the regenerated TSAC with a sweeping gas stream to yield a recovered adsorbed gas stream comprising sweeping gas, recovered ethylene and recovered ethane.

主权项

1. A process for component separation in a polymer production system, comprising:
(a) separating a polymerization product stream into a gas stream and a polymer stream, wherein the gas stream comprises unreacted ethylene monomer, optional unreacted comonomer, and ethane; (b) processing at least a portion of the gas stream in one or more distillation columns to form a light hydrocarbon stream comprising ethylene and ethane; (c) contacting at least a portion of the light hydrocarbon stream with a temperature swing adsorber contactor (TSAC) to yield a loaded TSAC and a non-adsorbed gas stream, wherein at least a portion of the ethylene is adsorbed by the TSAC at a first temperature to yield TSAC-adsorbed ethylene, wherein a portion of the ethane is adsorbed by the TSAC at the first temperature to yield TSAC-adsorbed ethane, wherein the loaded TSAC comprises TSAC-adsorbed ethylene and TSAC-adsorbed ethane, and wherein the TSAC is characterized by an adsorption selectivity of ethylene versus ethane at the first temperature of equal to or greater than about 5; (d) heating at least a portion of the loaded TSAC to a second temperature to yield a regenerated TSAC, desorbed ethylene and desorbed ethane, wherein the desorbed ethylene comprises at least a portion of the TSAC-adsorbed ethylene, wherein the desorbed ethane comprises at least a portion of the TSAC-adsorbed ethane, wherein the second temperature is greater than the first temperature by equal to or greater than about 10° C., and wherein a molar ratio of desorbed ethylene to TSAC-adsorbed ethylene is from about 0.01 to about 1; and (e) contacting at least a portion of the regenerated TSAC with a sweeping gas stream to yield a recovered adsorbed gas stream, wherein the recovered adsorbed gas stream comprises sweeping gas, recovered ethylene and recovered ethane, wherein the recovered ethylene comprises at least a portion of the desorbed ethylene, and wherein the recovered ethane comprises at least a portion of the desorbed ethane.