Separation of components from a gas mixture

摘要

This invention relates to the separation of components from a gas mixture. Aspects of the invention relate to the separation of components, for example carbon dioxide (CO2) and/or hydrogen sulphide (H2S) from, for example, acid gas, for example natural gas, syngas or process gas although features of the invention may be applied to other source gases. Such a process is sometimes referred to as acid gas removal (AGR). In examples described herein, the source gas mixture contains CO2 and/or H2S in addition to other components and in some examples, the CO2 and/or H2S components of the gas are referred to as acid gas components. In examples of the invention, some or all of the acid gas component is removed using a solvent absorption method; some examples described use a chemical absorption system (for example including N-Methyl diethanolamine (MDEA)), and others use a physical solvent (for example based on methanol (MeOH)).

主权项

1. A method of separating acid components from a source fluid, the method comprising:
passing the source fluid through an absorbent in an absorber column; absorbing acid component from the source fluid with the absorbent to form an acid-depleted fluid and an acid-rich absorbent; drawing a draw/return stream from the absorber column to a heat exchange system; cooling the draw/return stream in the heat exchange system and returning the draw/return stream from the heat exchange system to the absorber column; passing the acid-rich absorbent to the heat exchange system and a first regeneration unit comprising a separation apparatus; separating at least some of the acid component from the acid-rich absorbent in the separation apparatus to form a regenerated absorbent and an acid-rich vapour; compressing at least a part of the acid-rich vapour generated in the separation apparatus to form compressed acid-rich vapour; passing the compressed acid-rich vapour to the heat exchange system; wherein the heat exchange system facilitates the exchange of heat between at least a part of each of the following streams:
(i) the acid-rich absorbent;(ii) the compressed acid-rich vapour;(iii) the regenerated absorbent; and(iv) the draw/return stream.