Halogenated Hydrocarbon Recovery Using Inert-Gas Adsorbent Regeneration
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing systems for recovering halogenated hydrocarbons from gas streams, such as inhalation anesthetics, face challenges including bacterial contamination, incomplete separation of components, and potential product breakdown during desorption, leading to inefficient recycling and purification.
Innovation Solution
A process utilizing an adsorbent with a lattice structure having pore diameters between 5 and 50 angstroms to adsorb and desorb halogenated hydrocarbons without catalytic reactions, followed by condensation and fractional distillation for purification, ensuring high yields and compliance with medical standards.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If steam is used to remove anesthetics from adsorbent material, then desorption efficiency is improved, but catalytic reactions occur causing product breakdown
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the parameter of desorption medium from steam to heated inert gas (nitrogen or carbon dioxide). This substitution maintains the thermal energy needed for desorption while eliminating the catalytic reactions that cause anesthetic breakdown. The inert gas provides heat transfer without chemical interaction, resolving the contradiction between desorption efficiency and product integrity.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple different inhalation anesthetics are recovered, then versatility is improved, but separation and purification complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a universal adsorbent material (activated carbon or molecular sieve) that can adsorb multiple different anesthetic agents simultaneously. The single adsorbent bed handles diverse anesthetics without requiring separate adsorption systems, while the subsequent fractional distillation column provides universal separation capability for all recovered anesthetics, thus achieving versatility without proportionate complexity increase.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent utilizes phase transition in the fractional distillation process to separate multiple anesthetics. By controlling temperature gradients in the distillation column, different anesthetic components vaporize and condense at different heights, enabling automatic separation of multiple substances based on their unique boiling points without complex mechanical intervention.
3Productivity
If adsorbent material is saturated and then regenerated, then recovery efficiency is improved, but bacterial contamination risk increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the anesthetic-laden adsorbent material from the patient breathing circuit and places it in a separate regeneration system. This physical separation removes the adsorbent from the sterile medical environment, allowing aggressive regeneration processes (heating, purging) to be applied without compromising patient safety or introducing contamination risks back into the anesthetic delivery system.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution effectively captures and purifies halogenated hydrocarbons like sevoflurane and desflurane, preventing bacterial contamination and ensuring high-purity recovery, thereby reducing environmental impact and operational costs.
Implementation Method 1
exposing the gas stream to an adsorbent with a lattice structure having pore diameters large enough to permit molecules of the at least one halogenated hydrocarbon to enter and be adsorbed in internal cavities of the adsorbent lattice
Implementation Method 2
regenerating the adsorbent with a purge gas by exposing the adsorbent to the purge gas under conditions which efficiently desorb the at least one adsorbed halogenated hydrocarbon from the adsorbent
Implementation Method 3
subsequent desorption and recovery from the desorption gas by condensation
Implementation Method 4
subsequent separation and purification by fractional distillation of halogenated hydrocarbon inhalation anesthetics
Data Source
AI summary
A system and process for the recovery of at least one halogenated hydrocarbon from a gas stream. The recovery includes adsorption by exposing the gas stream to an adsorbent with a lattice structure having pore diameters with an average pore opening of between about 5 and about 50 angstroms. The adsorbent is then regenerated by exposing the adsorbent to a purge gas under conditions which efficiently desorb the at least one adsorbed halogenated hydrocarbon from the adsorbent. The at least one halogenated hydrocarbon (and impurities or reaction products) can be condensed from the purge gas and subjected to fractional distillation to provide a recovered halogenated hydrocarbon.