Combined process to produce liquid helium, liquid nitrogen, and gaseous
nitrogen from a crude helium feed
    3.
    发明授权
    Combined process to produce liquid helium, liquid nitrogen, and gaseous nitrogen from a crude helium feed 失效
    从粗氦原料生产液氦,液氮和气态氮的组合方法

    公开(公告)号:US4659351A

    公开(公告)日:1987-04-21

    申请号:US823709

    申请日:1986-01-29

    摘要: The present invention is directed to a process for the purification and liquefaction of helium from a feed stream consisting essentially of nitrogen and helium with some minor impurities, wherein the helium is purified in a two step process: the first purification step comprising refrigerating the feed stream to condense nitrogen and any impurities from the feed stream, feeding the cooled feed stream to a separator, and removing from the bottom of the separator the condensed nitrogen and impurities in the feed stream and from the top of the separator a gaseous, high-helium-content stream; the second purification step comprising warming the gaseous, high-helium-content stream from the first purification step, feeding said stream to a pressure swing adsorber, and removing from the pressure swing adsorber an essentially pure helium stream, which is liquefied by feeding said essentially pure helium stream to a liquefier; wherein refrigeration is provided for the warm end of the liquefier and the two step purification; the improvement comprising providing said refrigeration by compressing a side stream of the essentially pure helium in a compressor and expanding said compressed stream in an expansion engine thereby producing a cold helium gas stream; splitting said cold helium stream into two substreams and circulating said cold helium gas stream to the warm end of the liquefier and to the two step purification to provide refrigeration duty.

    摘要翻译: 本发明涉及一种从基本上由氮和氦组成的进料流中纯化和液化氦的方法,所述进料流具有一些较小的杂质,其中氦气以两步法纯化:第一纯化步骤包括将进料流 从进料流中冷凝氮气和任何杂质,将冷却的进料流送入分离器,并从分离器的底部除去进料流中的冷凝氮和杂质以及从分离器顶部的气态高氦 内容流 所述第二净化步骤包括从所述第一纯化步骤升温所述气态高氦含量物流,将所述物流送入变压吸附器,以及从所述变压吸附器除去基本上纯的氦气流,所述氦气流通过基本上 纯氦气流到液化器; 其中为液化器的温端和两步纯化提供制冷; 改进包括通过压缩压缩机中基本上纯的氦气的侧流来提供所述制冷,并且在膨胀发动机中膨胀所述压缩流,从而产生冷氦气流; 将所述冷氦气流分成两个子流,并将所述冷氦气流循环到液化器的温热端,并进行两步纯化以提供制冷功能。