Process and apparatus for the separation of a mixture of hydrogen and/or at least one hydrocarbon and/or nitrogen and/or carbon oxide

The present invention relates to a method and a plant for the separating a mixture of carbon monoxide and / or hydrogen and / or at least one hydrocarbon and / or nitrogen.

Facilities known for the separation of mixtures of carbon monoxide and hydrogen only includes columns trays.

Although the use of liners are either trivialized for other types distillation, such as distillation of air, the air balance coefficient is substantially different from that of mixtures of carbon monoxide, hydrogen and / or methane.

In the methane wash with systems (Figure 1), the gas pressure synthesis cooled to -180 ° C, is washed with liquid methane K01 in the column, carbon monoxide is driven in column vessel and hydrogen is produced at the top.

The dissolved hydrogen is then discharged into the flash column K02 average pressure. The binary CO / CH₄ is then separated in the column distill low pressure K03. CO gas is produced in the lead, methane liquid product tank is pumped and recycled for washing in K01.

The cooling power is produced in a CO cycle.

In systems with partial condensation (Figure 2), the gas synthesis, washed its methane into K11 by liquid CO resulting from B01, is cooled to the lowest temperature possible, the limitation being the CO solidification temperature; the condensed liquid is in B02 essentially CO.

Flash column K12 and K13 eliminate the dissolved hydrogen K11 respectively in the tank of liquid (rich in methane) and pot B02 (rich in CO).

Liquid from the K12 and K13 then feed columns column K14 distillation where the CO / CH separation takes place₄.

The cooling capacity is obtained by hydrogen in relaxation turbines.

In the particular case where nitrogen is present, a column N separation₂/ CO may be added downstream of the CO / CH column₄.

One subject of the invention, there is provided a separating device a gaseous mixture comprising hydrogen and / or at least one hydrocarbon and / or nitrogen and / or carbon monoxide comprising a wash column and / or a column of 'flash' and / or a column distillation characterized in that at least one of these columns contains packings.

The packings are preferably structured packings.

According to another object of the invention, there is provided a process for the separating a gas mixture comprising hydrogen and / or at least one hydrocarbon and / or nitrogen and / or carbon monoxide in a system columns comprising at least one column, this column containing at least a packing section.

According to other embodiments, there is provided a method in wherein the packings are structured packings having a density between 400 and 1000 m²/ m³.

The packings may be installed inside the columns wash, "flash" and distillation.

For columns operating at low pressure, such as carbon monoxide distillation columns and of methane or carbon monoxide and nitrogen, the pressure losses are relatively high for conventional plates.

The use of packing is used to divide the pressure drop by 10. If the low pressure device output is fixed, we can distil lower pressure and achieve energy savings of a few percent.

The fillings can reduce the height and diameter of wash columns and distillation. By replacing trays by packings having a density of 870 m²/ m³Can reduce the height of the column of about 20%.

For columns "flash", with a low gas flow rate and very variable between the tank and the head; perforation of the plates is low and very different from one plate to the other, making it difficult realization.

Moreover, when distilling a mixture of H₂/ CO / CH₄The rates vary strongly within the same section. This poses no problem packing delicate but makes use of the plates.

Structured packings of the invention may be of "Cross-corrugated".