A new process for high-efficiency crude helium extraction and purification from natural gas

Helium is a precious gas that is widely used in various industrial fields. It is mainly extracted from natural gas reservoirs. However, the volume fraction of helium in natural gas is usually lower than 0.3%, which makes the extraction process complicated and expensive. Current methods of extracting helium from natural gas have some problems, such as complicated processes, high energy consumption and high cost. Therefore, a new method of helium extraction, an improved cryogenic process combined with a 2-bed 6-step pressure swing adsorption process, is proposed in this paper, which improves the cryogenic process and purifies helium by a pressure swing adsorption method. The process is very simple, and the returned LNG serves as the cold source of cold boxes, which can reduce the amount of nitrogen circulation and greatly reduce the cost. Through the study and optimization of key parameters in the procedure, the energy consumption of the cryogenic process is reduced by 31.6%, and the helium concentration in the helium product reaches 99.999%.