Helium recovery and liquefaction plants

Linde Engineering offers tailored solutions for the recovery and liquefaction of valuable helium gas from natural gas.

Helium is a rare gas and highly valued in the market, making its recovery and liquefaction from natural gas an attractive option even in small amounts. It is used, for example, in the space industry, MRI and NMR equipment (superconducting magnets), welding and shielding processes, lasers and optical fiber manufacturing.

So, if helium is also present in the natural gas stream, nitrogen rejection is typically combined with the recovery of helium. Highpurity helium is obtained by combining cryogenic and pressure swing adsorption process steps.

We offer field-proven processes and plants for the cryogenic recovery of raw helium from natural gas, the purification of the raw helium in pressure swing adsorption (PSA) units, the liquefaction and production of high-purity helium (>99.999 %) and its storage at temperatures of about -270°C.

Our technologies cover each step in the helium value chain, enabling us to offer complete plants on a turnkey, lump-sum basis. Our wide range of process technologies is tailored to the capacity and helium concentration in the feed gas for optimum recovery results

Helium recovery plant
Typical components of NG and related processing plants
Typical components of NG and related processing plants

Our portfolio for nitrogen rejection from natural gas includes single-column, single partitioned column and double-column processes as well as double-column processes with an enrichment step. We offer customized configurations tailored to the individual composition of the gas in relation to both the nitrogen content and other impurities, which could solidify in the cryogenic process. 
If helium is also present in the gas stream in relevant quantities, we combine nitrogen rejection with helium recovery. High-purity helium is obtained by combining cryogenic and pressure swing adsorption process steps.

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