Abstract:
A method of continuously removing nitrogen from a blast furnace exhaust stream containing oxygen, nitrogen and unburned hydrocarbons in order to form a supplemental feed to a gas turbine engine containing residual hydrocarbon fuel by first removing entrained solid particulates in the blast furnace exhaust stream to create a substantially particulate-free gas, passing the particulate-free stream through at least one separator bed containing an adsorptive material capable of adsorbing nitrogen from air, adsorbing substantially all of the nitrogen as interstitial nitrogen on solids within the separator bed, feeding non-adsorbed hydrocarbon fuel and oxygen components leaving the separator to a gas turbine engine and removing the adsorbed nitrogen from the separator bed.