Process and apparatus for removing oxygen and carbon monoxide from a gas stream

摘要

The invention concerns an apparatus and process for purifying a gas stream comprising a major portion of an inert gas and a minor portion of oxygen are provided. The process involves contacting a feed gas stream (100) first with a membrane separation unit (101) to remove most of the oxygen from the feed gas. Then the non-permeate stream (102A) (or retentate), containing a smaller amount of oxygen, and which may have a varying oxygen concentration, is fed to a catalytic reactor (I) with a hydrocarbon gas (104), which reacts with any residual oxygen to form H2O, CO2 and CO. This stream is then fed to a reactor (II) containing a metal oxide, which reacts with the CO to convert it to CO2. <IMAGE>