AIR PRODUCTS AND CHEMICALS, INC.

An apparatus and process for removal of surface oxides includes an electron emitter device for emission of electrons for electron attachment to facilitate removal of oxides from solder bumps and/or solder caps on pillars of the surface of wafer(s) passing through an oven or furnace. The electron emitter device can include one or more modules having an electron emitting member with a plurality of projections positioned between different housing elements so that the projections extend through openings defined at an interface between the housing elements. Each module of the device can be releasably attached to a module support member for repair or replacement in a modular fashion via use of fasteners or other mechanism(s) (e.g. via bolts or screws, etc.) so that maintenance work can occur more quickly and efficiently to reduce downtime of equipment and improve operational flexibility.

An apparatus for combustion of solid fuel material can be configured to utilize one or more oxidant injectors positioned to inject a high oxygen content oxidant into at least one zone of a combustion chamber below a grate on which the solid fuel material is positioned to facilitate improved combustion of the material. In some embodiments, the injected oxidant can have an oxygen content of at least 80 mole percent, which can supplement other oxidant passed into the combustion chamber that has a lower oxygen concentration. The oxidant injector(s) can be selectively utilized to facilitate improved combustion startup and to facilitate combustion of low quality or high moisture solid fuel material. In some embodiments, the oxidant injector(s) can be positioned below one or more burners and be positioned upstream, downstream and/or coincident to the burner(s) and also below the grate and the burner(s) in the combustion chamber.

Disclosed herein are membrane-based gas separation methods and systems. The methods and systems may, in particular, be used for separating a feed stream comprising methane and carbon dioxide (such as for example a biogas feed stream) in order to provide a methane product stream (such as for example a biomethane stream).

A system for separating a raw feed gas stream utilizes a compressor, a chiller, a membrane drying stage, and a plurality of membrane separation stages. The raw feed gas stream may comprise biogas. In one example, the raw feed gas stream is supplied to the chiller where it is cooled to a target operating temperature to separate out condensed water. The gas stream is then supplied to a membrane drying stage to separate out water vapor. An off-gas from one of the membrane module stages may be recycled as a low pressure sweep gas on the low pressure side of the membrane drying stage to increase the driving force for water permeation within the membrane drying stage. The gas stream is then supplied to the plurality of membrane separation stages where it is upgraded into a high purity methane stream.

A low carbon-emission hydrogen production process may be achieved by first separating carbon dioxide from a reformer syngas stream, followed by separating the carbon dioxide-depleted syngas stream using a semi-permeable membrane to produce a hydrogen-enriched permeate and a hydrogen-depleted retentate. The hydrogen-enriched permeate is purified to produce a hydrogen product and a hydrogen-depleted tail gas stream. The hydrogen-depleted retentate stream may be recycled to the feed and the hydrogen-depleted tail gas stream may be used as fuel in the reformer burners.

The invention concerns a process and apparatus for cracking ammonia in which heated ammonia gas at super-atmospheric pressure is partially cracked catalytically in an adiabatic reaction unit to produce partially cracked ammonia gas which is heated and fed to catalyst-containing reactor tubes in a furnace to cause cracking of further ammonia and produce a cracked gas comprising hydrogen gas, nitrogen gas and residual ammonia gas. At least some, preferably all, of the duty required to heat the partially cracked ammonia gas is provided by heat exchange with the cracked gas, enabling more efficient heat integration within the process.

A controller, process, and glass manufacturing apparatus can be configured to minimize defects. Embodiments can be adapted to control injection of nitrogen and/or argon and a mixture of nitrogen and hydrogen or nitrogen, hydrogen, and argon during glass float manufacturing to facilitate a pre-selected hydrogen concentration within a tin bath furnace while also minimizing glass surface defects that can be caused from tin condensation and tin bath impurity concentrations. Empirical use data can also be collected and provided to a pre-defined machine learning element of a host device to update a pre-defined control scheme of a controller for adapting the operational condition set points or other target values to account for furnace operation history and performance.

An apparatus and process for capturing carbon dioxide from exhaust output from at least one ship engine on the ship for storage of the carbon dioxide on the ship. The storage of the carbon dioxide on the ship can facilitate delivery of the captured carbon dioxide to a fuel production system at a port of destination or other port that the ship may arrive at to provide the captured carbon dioxide to the fuel production system. The fuel production system may then use the carbon dioxide to form a fuel (e.g. methane, methanol, etc.). The fuel that is produced can be provided to other ships at the port. The carbon capture system can utilize membranes, adsorption, and/or absorption for capturing the carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide can be stored on the ship in at least one storage vessel of the ship.

The invention relates to particular burners, particularly to non-premixed or partially-premixed dual-fuel burners with flexibility to change the heat input from the two fuels. Accordingly, said burners may be used in applications that needs operation of a burner in both single-fuel, and/or duel-fuel mode depending on furnace operation needs. The invention further relates to furnaces including the burners and methods of operating the burners.

Disclosed herein are rotary valve assemblies, comprising a single rotor, for use in adsorption based separation processes. Also disclosed are adsorption based separation apparatuses including said rotary valve assemblies, and adsorption based separation processes using said adsorption based separation apparatuses.