Patents by Inventor Edward Landis Weist, Jr.

Edward Landis Weist, Jr. has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 7390350
    Abstract: Method for the separation of a gas mixture comprising providing a pressure swing adsorption system having a plurality of adsorber vessels, wherein each vessel has an inlet, an outlet, and a bed of particulate adsorbent material disposed therein. The adsorbent material is selective for the adsorption of one or more components from the gas mixture, and each bed of adsorbent material is characterized by a bed depth and by an average particle diameter less than about 1.3 mm. A feed step is carried out during a feed time period wherein the gas mixture is introduced into the adsorber vessel, one or more components are selectively adsorbed from the gas mixture, and a product gas is withdrawn from the adsorber vessel. The bed depth in feet times the dimensionless ratio of the empty bed residence time to the feed time period is less than about 4.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 26, 2005
    Date of Patent: June 24, 2008
    Assignee: Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.
    Inventors: Edward Landis Weist, Jr., Daniel Patrick Zwilling, Timothy Christopher Golden
  • Patent number: 6814787
    Abstract: The present invention describes a pressure swing adsorption (PSA) apparatus and process for the production of purified hydrogen from a feed gas stream containing heavy hydrocarbons (i.e., hydrocarbons having at least six carbons). The apparatus comprises at least one bed containing at least three layers. The layered adsorption zone contains a feed end with a low surface area adsorbent (20 to 400 m2/g) which comprises 2 to 20% of the total bed length followed by a layer of an intermediate surface area adsorbent (425 to 800 m2/g) which comprises 25 to 40% of the total bed length and a final layer of high surface area adsorbent (825 to 2000 m2/g) which comprises 40 to 78% of the total bed length.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 8, 2002
    Date of Patent: November 9, 2004
    Assignee: Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.
    Inventors: Timothy Christopher Golden, Edward Landis Weist, Jr.
  • Patent number: 6770390
    Abstract: The present invention is a method for production of a hydrogen-rich fuel gas compatible for a fuel cell, comprising; reforming a hydrocarbon-containing fuel to a CO-containing, hydrogen-rich reformate, converting CO in the reformate to CO2 and hydrogen by a catalyzed water-shift reaction, removing residual CO in the reformate by adsorption on a copper halide adsorbent, and passing the essentially CO-free reformate as a hydrogen-rich fuel gas to a fuel cell.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 17, 2001
    Date of Patent: August 3, 2004
    Assignee: Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.
    Inventors: Timothy Christopher Golden, Edward Landis Weist, Jr.
  • Patent number: 6706857
    Abstract: In a process for the production of a polyolefin, an olefin monomer is polymerised said polyolefin and residual monomer is recovered. A gas stream comprising the monomer and nitrogen is subjected to a PSA process in which said monomer is adsorbed on a periodically regenerated silica gel or alumina adsorbent to recover a purified gas stream containing said olefin and a nitrogen rich stream containing no less than 99% nitrogen and containing no less than 50% of the nitrogen content of the gas feed to the PSA process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 11, 2003
    Date of Patent: March 16, 2004
    Assignee: Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.
    Inventors: Timothy Christopher Golden, Edward Landis Weist, Jr., Charles Henry Johnson
  • Patent number: 6605136
    Abstract: A pressure swing adsorption process which comprises introducing a feed gas mixture into an inlet of an adsorber vessel during a feed period, wherein the feed gas mixture contains a more strongly adsorbable component and a less strongly adsorbable component and the adsorber vessel contains a bed of adsorbent material which selectively adsorbs the more strongly adsorbable component, and withdrawing a product gas enriched in the less strongly adsorbable component from an outlet of the adsorber vessel during at least a portion of the feed period, wherein a dimensionless cycle-compensated mass transfer coefficient defined as K tfeedVads/Vfeed is maintained in the range of about 23 to about 250.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 10, 2002
    Date of Patent: August 12, 2003
    Assignee: Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.
    Inventors: David Ross Graham, Roger Dean Whitley, Robert Ling Chiang, Edward Landis Weist, Jr., Timothy Christopher Golden, Matthew James Labuda
  • Patent number: 6576043
    Abstract: A method for the separation of a gas mixture comprises (a) obtaining a feed gas mixture comprising nitrogen and at least one hydrocarbon having two to six carbon atoms; (b) introducing the feed gas mixture at a temperature of about 60° F. to about 105° F. into an adsorbent bed containing adsorbent material which selectively adsorbs the hydrocarbon, and withdrawing from the adsorbent bed an effluent gas enriched in nitrogen; (c) discontinuing the flow of the feed gas mixture into the adsorbent bed and depressurizing the adsorbent bed by withdrawing depressurization gas therefrom; (d) purging the adsorbent bed by introducing a purge gas into the bed and withdrawing therefrom an effluent gas comprising the hydrocarbon, wherein the purge gas contains nitrogen at a concentration higher than that of the nitrogen in the feed gas mixture; (e) pressurizing the adsorbent bed by introducing pressurization gas into the bed; and (f) repeating (b) through (e) in a cyclic manner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 12, 2001
    Date of Patent: June 10, 2003
    Assignee: Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.
    Inventors: Daniel Patrick Zwilling, Timothy Christopher Golden, Edward Landis Weist, Jr., Keith Alan Ludwig
  • Patent number: 6483001
    Abstract: The present invention describes a pressure swing adsorption (PSA) apparatus and process for the production of purified hydrogen from a feed gas stream containing heavy hydrocarbons (i.e., hydrocarbons having at least six carbons). The apparatus comprises at least one bed containing at least three layers. The layered adsorption zone contains a feed end with a low surface area adsorbent (20 to 400 m2/g) which comprises 2 to 20% of the total bed length followed by a layer of an intermediate surface area adsorbent (425 to 800 m2/g) which comprises 25 to 40 % of the total bed length and a final layer of high surface area adsorbent (825 to 2000 m2/g) which comprises 40 to 78% of the total bed length.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2000
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2002
    Assignee: Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.
    Inventors: Timothy Christopher Golden, Edward Landis Weist, Jr
  • Patent number: 6454838
    Abstract: A pressure swing adsorption process includes providing a pressure swing adsorption apparatus having six beds, and equalizing a pressure of each of the six beds in four steps, wherein at all times during the process, at least one of the six beds is providing offgas. The process is particularly suitable for purifying hydrogen from a feed gas mixture containing hydrogen and at least one of methane, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen and water vapor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 21, 2000
    Date of Patent: September 24, 2002
    Assignee: Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.
    Inventors: Jianguo Xu, Edward Landis Weist, Jr.
  • Patent number: 6302943
    Abstract: An improved adsorption process is provided for purifying hydrogen from a feed gas mixture including hydrogen and at least one impurity selected from the group consisting of carbon monoxide and nitrogen. The process includes providing an adsorption apparatus having a discharge end adsorption layer containing an adsorbent with a Henry's law constant (KH) at 70° F. for the impurity from about 0.5 to about 2.4 mmole/g/atm. The product gas collected from the adsorption apparatus is high purity (99.99+%) hydrogen.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 2, 1999
    Date of Patent: October 16, 2001
    Assignee: Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.
    Inventors: Leighta Maureen Johnson, Thomas Stephen Farris, Timothy Christopher Golden, Edward Landis Weist, Jr., James Michael Occhialini
  • Patent number: 5846298
    Abstract: Ozone is recovered from an ozone-oxygen mixture by adsorption using an adsorbent which comprises a zeolite selected from the group consisting of L type zeolite, Y type zeolite, ZSM-5, and mordenite in which at least 90% of the exchangeable cation content is in the ammonium form and the molar ratio of potassium to aluminum is less than about 0.25. Alternatively, a proton-exchanged L type zeolite can be used in which at least 90% of the exchangeable cation content is in the proton form and the molar ratio of potassium to aluminum is less than about 0.25.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 9, 1997
    Date of Patent: December 8, 1998
    Assignee: Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.
    Inventor: Edward Landis Weist, Jr.