摘要:
The present invention relates to a process and apparatus for the separation of air by cryogenic distillation. In particular, it relates to a process for separation of air using three cryogenic distillation columns for the production of gaseous oxygen. Certain embodiments of the invention are particularly efficient for the production of gaseous oxygen at pressures between 30 and 45 bars abs, in which the oxygen is produced by removing liquid oxygen from a distillation column, pressurizing the oxygen and vaporizing the pressurized liquid by heat exchange with air.
摘要:
A system and method for air separation using a supplemental refrigeration cycle is provided. A portion of the refrigeration required by the air separation plant to produce a liquid product stream is supplied via a supplemental refrigeration circuit configured to direct a cooled refrigerant produced by the turboexpander through the main heat exchanger of the air separation plant. The refrigeration capacity is controlled by removing or adding a portion of the refrigerant in the supplemental refrigeration circuit to adjust the inlet pressure while maintaining a substantially constant volumetric flow rate and substantially constant pressure ratio across the compressor. Removing the refrigerant from the supplemental refrigeration circuit decreases the refrigeration imparted by the supplemental refrigeration circuit and thus decreases the production of the liquid product stream. Adding refrigerant allows for an increase in the refrigeration imparted by the supplemental refrigeration circuit and thus allows for increased production of the liquid product stream.
摘要:
A device for obtaining liquid nitrogen by low-temperature air fractionation in a distillation column system for nitrogen-oxygen separation includes a high-pressure column; a low-pressure column; a high-pressure column top condenser which is constructed as a condenser-evaporator and comprises a liquefaction compartment and an evaporation compartment; a low-pressure column top condenser which is constructed as a condenser-evaporator and comprises a liquefaction compartment and an evaporation compartment. A throttle stream is formed by one part of a purified feed air that is liquefied or pseudoliquefied in a main heat exchanger. The throttle stream is expanded, and at least some of the expanded throttle stream is introduced as refrigerant stream into the evaporation compartment of the high-pressure column top condenser.
摘要:
A process and an apparatus for separating air by cryogenic distillation. The apparatus has a medium pressure column thermally coupled to a low pressure column. Compressed and purified air is cooled to cryogenic temperature in an exchanger, and sent at least partly to the medium pressure column. Streams enriched in oxygen and nitrogen are sent from the medium pressure column to the low pressure column and, streams enriched in nitrogen and oxygen are removed from the low pressure.
摘要:
Air is separated into oxygen and nitrogen in a double rectification column comprising a higher pressure rectification column and a lower pressure rectification column. Liquid nitrogen reflux for the separation is provided by condensing nitrogen vapor taken from the column in a condenser-reboiler. Additional separation is performed in an intermediate pressure rectification column. A first stream of argon-enriched vapor is withdrawn from an intermediate region of the lower pressure rectification column and has an argon fraction separated from it in a first side rectification column. A second stream of argon-enriched vapor is similarly withdrawn and is separated in a second side rectification column which provides vapor to heat a reboiler associated with the intermediate pressure rectification column. Alternatively a stream of oxygen vapor can be so employed instead of the second argon-enriched vapor stream.
摘要:
A cryogenic rectification system wherein feed air is turboexpanded to generate refrigeration through two turboexpanders operating at the same inlet pressure but at different inlet temperatures enabling the turboexpanders to efficiently drive the compressor or compressors which compress the feed air to the single expansion pressure.
摘要:
Air is compressed in compressors, cooled in a main heat exchanger, and separated into oxygen and nitrogen products in a double rectification column comprising a higher pressure rectification column and a lower pressure rectification column. A liquid oxygen product is withdrawn from the lower pressure column via a conduit. A liquid nitrogen product is also formed. An argon-enriched oxygen vapour stream is withdrawn from the lower pressure column through an outlet and has argon separated from it in an argon column. In order to help meet the requirements of the higher pressure column for reflux, a nitrogen vapour stream is withdrawn from the top of the lower pressure column, is warmed by passage through the heat exchanger, is recompressed in a compressor, and is liquefied by passage back through the heat exchanger from its warm end to its cold end and passage through a valve. A high liquid make and a high argon recovery can both be achieved.
摘要:
All the air to be distilled is compressed to a first high pressure and is thereafter separated into two portions. The first portion, representing at least 70% of the flow, is boosted to a second high pressure and cooled down in a heat exchanger to an intermediate temperature, where a part thereof is work expended to the mean pressure while the remainder is liquefied. The second portion is cooled and liquefied in the heat exchange line, into one or a plurality of flows at one or more pressures between the first and second high pressures.
摘要:
Entering air, all of which is compressed to a first high pressure P1, is partly further compressed to a pressure P2. At intermediate temperatures, a portion of each air current is expanded in a turbine (7, 8). One of the turbines can have an output at a pressure P3 comprised between P1 and the medium pressure. The major proportion of the separated oxygen is withdrawn as a liquid from the low pressure column (13), pumped to the production pressure and vaporized in the heat exchange line (2) by condensation or pseudo-condensation of air at one of the pressures P1, P2 and P3, depending on whether the condensation occurs at subcritical or supercritical pressure.
摘要:
A compressed air stream is separated in a double rectification column having a higher pressure stage and a lower pressure stage. The lower pressure stage contains a low pressure drop liquid-vapor contact means having a pressure drop of less than about 400.0 Pa per theoretical stage, for example a structured packing, to effect mass transfer between ascending vapor and descending liquid. A product gaseous oxygen stream is withdrawn from the lower pressure stage through an outlet thereof and is warmed to about ambient temperature in a heat exchanger in countercurrent flow relationship with the compressed air stream which is thereby cooled. Refrigeration for the process is created by expansion of part of the incoming air. By using a low pressure drop liquid-vapor contact means in the lower pressure stage, the resulting operating pressure in the higher pressure stage is able to be lower than in a conventional process enabling the incoming air to be compressed to a lower pressure (for example a pressure in a range of about 5.0 to 6.0 bar). At such pressures, two expansion turbines are used to enable the heat exchanger to be operated efficiently.