Abstract: Disclosed are processes in which the pressure of a dense phase fluid stream containing hydrocarbons is reduced to produce a two-phase fluid stream, and energy is recovered. The process includes passing the dense phase fluid stream at a pressure greater than the cricondenbar pressure of the dense phase fluid stream through an expander where the dense phase fluid stream is expanded isentropically such that a two phase fluid stream having a pressure lower than the pressure of the dense phase fluid stream leaves the expander. The expander is coupled to a rotating mechanical power user, such that the expander drives the rotating mechanical power user. The process further includes passing the two phase fluid stream leaving the expander to a separator such that the two phase fluid stream is separated into a vapor phase stream and a liquid phase stream. The composition or quantity of liquid formed can be adjusted to control the dew point of the gas produced from the dense-phase fluid.

Abstract: A method and system for processing produced fluids from a subterranean reservoir is disclosed. The system comprises: (a) a separator for separating produced fluids from a subterranean reservoir into associated gases, water and crude oil, (b) a membrane which receives at least a portion of the associated gases containing the hydrogen sulfide and separates the gas into a permeate stream enriched in hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide and a retentate stream depleted in hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide; (c) an amine unit for removing carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide from the retentate stream; and (d) a sour gas injection unit for injecting at the permeate stream in an underground formation.

Abstract: A method and system for processing produced fluids from a subterranean reservoir is disclosed. The system comprises: (a) a separator for separating produced fluids from a subterranean reservoir into associated gases, water and crude oil, (b) a membrane which receives at least a portion of the associated gases containing the hydrogen sulfide and separates the gas into a permeate stream enriched in hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide and a retentate stream depleted in hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide; (c) an amine unit for removing carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide from the retentate stream; and (d) a sour gas injection unit for injecting at the permeate stream in an underground formation.

Abstract: The present invention constructs a SD Flash card by plugging two micro-SD cards into a new apparatus that has the same form factor as a SD Flash card. In this new apparatus, there is a controller to bridge the two micro-SD cards of any SD interface speed type (DS, HS, UHS50 or UHS104) to UHS104. The controller performs striping access function to achieve almost double performance in sequential read/write throughput if it is not limited by the target SD interface speed.

Abstract: A process for the recovery of sulfur from an acid gas stream is disclosed. The process includes a Claus sulfur recovery step in combination with a direct reduction step and a biological sulfur recovery step to provide a sweet gas stream having a very low concentration of hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide. The process includes reacting an acid gas steam with oxygen under such oxidation conditions to yield a combustion gas comprising hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide. The combustion gas is reacted under Claus reaction conditions to yield a reaction gas comprising sulfur. Sulfur is recovered from the reaction gas to yield a Claus tail gas comprising hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide. The Claus tail gas is reacted under direct reduction reaction conditions to yield a direct reduction gas comprising sulfur. Sulfur is recovered from the direct reduction reaction gas to yield a tail gas comprising a concentration of hydrogen sulfide.

Abstract: Methods and configurations are drawn to a plant in which an effluent gas with a sulfur dioxide content of more than 1.5% is mixed with a substantially sulfur dioxide free offgas from a contactor to form a mixed feed gas for a hydrogenation reactor, wherein the mixed feed gas has a sulfur dioxide content of less than 1.5%.

Abstract: A network switching apparatus and method for congestion control. Each one of the connection ports of the switching apparatus includes a low priority queue and a high priority queue. When a data packet enters a switching apparatus, the switching apparatus according to the type of the data packet enqueues the data packet to the low priority queue or the high priority queue. When congestion occurs at the switching apparatus, the low priority queue and the high priority queue can respectively perform the different ways of the congestion control, according to the input congestion mode. Also, when the switching apparatus receives a pause frame, response flow control can be performed, according to the output congestion mode. Since the different ways of the congestion control are performed according to the different types of the data packet, the congestion control can be optimized.

Abstract: A combined process for the recovery of sulfur from an acid gas stream. The combined process includes both a Claus unit and a unit for treating the Claus tail gas with caustic to remove hydrogen sulfide therefrom and to biologically oxidize the hydrogen sulfide using certain types of sulfur bacteria to make elemental sulfur. The combined process provides for an exceptionally low concentration of hydrogen sulfide in the finally treated sweet gas.

Abstract: The present invention discloses a bridging apparatus for bridging a host to a SAN (Storage Area Network). The bridging apparatus is capable of virtualizing a disk volume allocated in the SAN as a DAS (Direct Attached Storage). The bridging apparatus of the present invention comprises: a first HBA (Host Bus Adapter) for connecting to a SAN, a second HBA for connecting to a host having a DAS interface, a bridge controller for connecting to the first HBA and the second HBA, respectively, so as to bridge the host to the SAN, thereby allowing the host to directly access a disk volume allocated in the SAN, and a storage unit connecting to the bridge controller for storing programs and data.

Abstract: An Ethernet switch with rate control and associated method is provided. Each port in the switch has individual settings of egress/ingress) rate control, which are stored in a register and configured based on required rates. The switch uses data volume that a port can output/input within each unit time to control egress/ingress rate of the port. Further, the egress rate can be precisely controlled by using uniform random numbers provided by an random number generator of the switch, and the ingress rate can be advantageously controlled by combining a proper kind of congestion control, which is performed according to the capability of a device connected to the port, such as full-duplex or half-duplex, and flow control.

Abstract: A method for easing data transmission congestion in a switch device having a plurality of ports. The switch device includes a shared buffer capable of dividing into a plurality of buffering units. The method comprises the steps as follows. A plurality of output queues are provided, in which the output queues have a one-to-one correspondence with the ports, and each output queue has a number of reserved buffering units. The buffering unit(s) are then assigned in the shared buffer. A packet is received from a source port and storing the packet in an assigned buffering unit. The target port of a packet is determined according to a header of the packet. Then, the buffering unit containing the packet is linked to the output queue that corresponds to the target port. The free buffering units are thus controlled according to a number of reserved buffering units in the output queue and a triggering or a terminating condition of the source port.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for accessing a non-symmetric dual-slot address table having two entries 0, 1 that are different in size. When writing data, the data is hashed to generate a hash value. Then, the data is written to a slot corresponding to the hash value in the entry 0. When there was data in the slot 0, the hash value is mapped to a sub-address and a share value, and then a slot 1 corresponding to the sub-address is selected from the entry 1. Afterwards, the SMAC tag, the share value and the source port are written to the slot 1. In addition, when transmitting the packet, a hash value is generated according to the DMAC address. Then, a SMAC tag, the share value and the source port are read according to the hash value. After compared, the packet is transmitted.

Abstract: A switch controller using a congestion control method can relieve congestion in a network. The Ethernet switch controller has the capacity to select a suitable congestion control mode according to each connection port and state of the connected device. If a flow control mode is selected, the switch controller issues a flow control frame and waits for the passing of a guard period roughly equivalent to a period of about inputting three packets. If the connected device continues to transmit network packets after the guard period, the switch controller switches from the flow control mode to a drop control mode. Hence, the received packets are discarded and congestion is prevented. Consequently, the switch controller of this invention can still carry out congestion control operation when the switch controller is connected to a device having no standard flow control capability.

Abstract: A output queuing method for forwarding the packets sequentially in a switching network. Each port is related to a port output queue and a global output queue is shared by all port output queues. A FIFO (First In First Out) block is allocated into each port output queue and the global output queue. The FIFO block contains a number of FIFO nodes. Based on the type and destination ports of the received packet, the fields of the related FIFO node in the port output queue and the global output queue are set. The packets are sent out or skipped based on the related fields.

Abstract: A method for compensating for clock signal difference between a switch and peripheral device, including a receiving process and a transmitting process. For the receiving process, after an N-th packet is received, a first counter is triggered and begins to count. When an (N+1)-th packet is inputted, the counter stops counting and then an inter-packet gap IPG(N, N+1) between the N-th packet and the (N+1)-th packet is recorded into the N+1 queue link node QLN(N+1) according a counting value by the first counter; otherwise, the first counter keeps counting. For the transmitting process, after an inter-packet gap IPG(M?1, M) is obtained, and the M-th packet is transmitted, and then the second counter is triggered to begin to count. When a counted value by the second counter is equal to the clock cycle value corresponding to the inter-packet gap IPG(M?1, M), the second counter stops counting.

Abstract: A method for transmitting multi-cast packets is provided, including the steps of (a) receiving a plurality of multi-cast packets and generating corresponding port masks to indicate a plurality of ports from which the multi-cast packets are to be transmitted, (b) selecting, based on the yet-enqueued ports indicated in port masks, a port with highest priority, enqueuing the multi-cast packet into the port, and updating the port masks, (c) checking whether the port with highest priority being full-duplex, and (d) determining when to repeat steps (b) to (d) base on the result of the checking, until finishing the transmission specified by the port masks. In step (d), when the port with highest priority is full-duplex, wait until the port with highest priority starting transmitting the packet, then repeat steps (b) to (d).

Abstract: A method of early release of buffers and a related media access control chip are disclosed, wherein the method includes the steps of: receiving an Ethernet packet from a port, allocating a buffer area having a plurality of buffers stitched sequentially for storing the Ethernet packet, transmitting the Ethernet packet from the destination port, and releasing the buffers when the transmission starts if the destination port is full-duplex transmission mode, or releasing the buffers after at least 128 bytes of the packet is transmitted if the destination port is half-duplex transmission mode. The Ethernet packet can be either uni-cast, multi-cast or broadcast.

Abstract: A method for buffer management and a controller of the same are disclosed. In the buffer management method, a first control mode is performed, and a plurality of bits are used to control a bit mask region of a memory. A second control mode is performed, and a plurality of unused addresses in a link region of the memory is cached. A third control mode is performed, to control a plurality of second unused addresses in the link region by a linked list. The controller comprises a plurality of bits for controlling a bit mask region; a plurality of address cache units for caching a plurality of first unused address of a linked list in a link region; and a pointer for always pointing to a head of the linked list in the link region, wherein the linked list links a plurality of second unused addresses.

Abstract: An Ethernet switch controller with console command logic unit and application apparatus thereof implemented with the least cost. The switch controller includes a serial port interface that connects with an external ASCII console. A user can input a serial character command through this console. The switch controller interprets and executes the command it received. When the command is a read command, the controller sends the result to be displayed on the console. Therefore, advance function commands can be implemented for the Ethernet switch to read data from or write data to a register within the Ethernet switch controller, a physical layer or an EEPROM.

Abstract: An Ethernet packet flow control method and associated application apparatus. A unicast flow control packet instead of a broadcast flow control packet is sent when the destination port is congested. The source port is informed to stop sending any packet to the congested port only. Therefore, overall performance of the transmission network is improved.