Argon scavenging
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Are there any manufacturers that use argon adsorption, or entities that employ membrane adsorption for argon removal? Our facility’s off-gases contain hydrogen and nitrogen after ammonia washing, and we want to recover these gases to reintroduce them into the system for ammonia synthesis; however, there is nearly 1% argon present in these gases, so we need to remove it.
Low-temperature separation can be attempted~Nitrogen and hydrogen can be returned to the ammonia synthesis plant for reuse, argon is separated into liquid argon, and methane is converted into LNG; these two products can be sold externally~
Is the investment in low-temperature separation a bit excessive? The main reason is that our gas flow rate is relatively low, reaching at most a little over 2,000 cubic meters.
You can consult low-temperature engineering companies~~such as Henan Kaiyuan and Shanghai Qiyuan~
Currently, most methods involve membrane hydrogen extraction and pressure swing adsorption; the off-gas is used as fuel gas.
Although the quantity is small, when the value of the fuel gas is low, recovering it as feed gas can result in savings of over 5 million per year; therefore, we plan to recover it.
How do you plan to recycle it? Generally, after extracting hydrogen, one goes to the fuel gas official website; methane cannot be extracted there. What approach do you plan to take?
We produce urea from coal; we use low-temperature methanol washing and liquid nitrogen washing, with trace amounts of methane present. We plan to use membranes to recover hydrogen and then reintroduce it into the system.
Mm-hmm, we are currently extracting hydrogen from membranes. The methane content in the coke oven gas is high, so there is significant value in recovering it.
What is your capacity, how many membranes do you have, and what is the approximate investment cost? Our capacity is relatively small, up to a little over 2,000.
It’s similar to yours; the design capacity is 3,000 cubic meters. The gas from the spherical tank, along with the gas released during pressure equalization, enters the membrane hydrogen extraction unit together with the gas released after the tower. The hydrogen-rich gas obtained as a result goes into the fuel gas pipeline. An investment of less than one million is not much. The methane content is 15%, argon accounts for 1%, with the remainder being hydrogen, nitrogen, and a small amount of ammonia.