US 12,421,468 B2
Method for purifying a flow of natural gas
Cyrille Callu, Solaize (FR); and Loïc Francke, Pau (FR)
Assigned to TOTALENERGIES ONETECH, Courbevoie (FR)
Appl. No. 18/275,992
Filed by TOTALENERGIES ONETECH, Courbevoie (FR)
PCT Filed Nov. 15, 2021, PCT No. PCT/FR2021/052014
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Aug. 4, 2023,
PCT Pub. No. WO2022/167732, PCT Pub. Date Aug. 11, 2022.
Claims priority of application No. FR2101124 (FR), filed on Feb. 5, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2024/0101917 A1, Mar. 28, 2024
Int. Cl. C01B 3/24 (2006.01); C07C 7/00 (2006.01); C10L 3/10 (2006.01)
CPC C10L 3/101 (2013.01) [C10L 2200/0469 (2013.01); C10L 2290/02 (2013.01); C10L 2290/24 (2013.01); C10L 2290/34 (2013.01); C10L 2290/547 (2013.01)] 15 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for purifying a flow (1) of natural gas, comprising the following steps:
a) a step (5) of processing at least a portion (3) of said flow (1) by pyrolysis at a temperature in the range of from 1000° C. to 2000° C., so as to decompose hydrocarbons comprising at least two carbon atoms into elemental carbon and dihydrogen H2 and thus obtain a processed flow (6), then
b) a step (7) of eliminating the elemental carbon present in the processed flow (6) from step a) so as to obtain a processed flow (8) free of elemental carbon; then
c) when steps a) and b) have been carried out on a portion of the flow (1) of natural gas only, a step (10) of mixing the processed flow (8) free of elemental carbon from step b) with the portion (4) of the non-processed flow; then
d) obtaining a flow of purified natural gas (11) consisting either of the mixture (10) from step c) or of the processed flow (8) free of elemental carbon from step b).