A helium refining device using hydrate method

Abstract

The patent of the present invention discloses a helium refining device using the hydrate method, which relates to the technical field of helium extraction from natural gas, including a crude helium heat exchanger, a dehydrogenation reactor, a crude helium cooler, the first hydrate forming tower, the second Dihydrate generating tower, hydrate decomposer, helium compressor, helium cooler and other equipment. The present invention adopts catalytic oxidation dehydrogenation and hydrate denitrification, which is different from the traditional helium refining device. The water generated by the dehydrogenation unit is used in the denitrogenation unit, thereby removing the dehydration device, reducing equipment investment, and adding tetrabutyl The ammonium bromide solution reduces the pressure of nitrogen hydrate formation, so that the operating pressure of the whole device is lower than that of traditional helium refining devices, thereby reducing the energy consumption of the device. The invention overcomes the disadvantages of high investment and energy consumption costs of traditional helium refining devices, and utilizes dehydrogenated crude helium to supply heat for crude helium heat exchangers and hydrate decomposers, thereby realizing multi-stage energy reuse.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention relates to the technical field of helium extraction from natural gas, in particular to a helium refining device utilizing a hydrate method Background technique [0002] Helium is an important strategic resource with extremely low boiling point (4.2K), critical temperature (5.15K) and critical pressure (0.226MPa), which can easily achieve ultra-low temperature cooling that cannot be achieved by other cryogenic liquids. Aerospace, nuclear weapons, submarines, saturation diving operations, nuclear magnetic resonance, semiconductors and other scientific and technological fields have played an irreplaceable role and have become one of the indispensable and important raw materials for national defense and high-tech development. Therefore, how to extract helium from nature has become an important topic of widespread concern. However, the helium content in nature is extremely low. The helium content in the atmosphere is only 0.0005%, while the h...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

In the helium refining process, catalytic oxidation dehydrogenation, membrane separation purification and pressure swing adsorption denitrification are the most widely used processes, such as CN111547691A, CN110844893A and other published patents, these processes can improve the purity of helium, increase the amount of helium recovery rate, but there are still three limitations, which are manifested in the following three aspects: first, the water generated by the catalytic oxidation device is difficult to be used, and it is necessary to establish a deep dehydration unit for treatment, which increases equipment investment; second, membrane separation The method is used in the helium refining device to initially purify crude helium, reduce the load of the pressure swing adsorption device and reduce energy consumption, but the separation capacity of the single-stage membrane is limited, so it is necessary to design a multi-stage membrane unit or increase the pressure on both sides of the membrane. To ensure the purity of helium, there is still a large cost of materials and energy consumption; third, the pressure swing adsorption method needs to establish a multi-stage adsorption device to ensure the efficiency of denitrification, the process is complicated, and at the same time due to the existence of the adsorption device The upper limit of the adsorption capacity, in order to make the device operate continuously, multiple devices need to be used alternately, which also puts forward requirements on the accuracy of the equipment, which increases equipment investment and operating costs, and the adsorption pressure of the pressure swing adsorption device is often high, which means The power demand of the compressor is relatively large, and the energy consumption of helium extraction is relatively large

The analysis found that the above helium refining units have the problem of poor economic benefits

Images