Argon and power production by integration with power plant

A method for producing power and argon, the method comprising the steps of:

• providing a residual gas stream, wherein the residual gas stream is sourced from a retentate stream of a cold membrane, wherein the residual gas stream comprises nitrogen, argon, oxygen, and carbon dioxide, wherein the residual gas stream is derived from a flue gas stream from a power plant;
• purifying the residual gas stream in a front-end purification unit to remove carbon dioxide, thereby forming a purified residual gas stream;
• expanding the purified residual gas stream in a warm turbine to produce an expanded purified residual gas stream and export power;
• introducing the expanded purified residual gas stream to a heat exchanger;
• fully cooling a first portion of the expanded purified residual gas stream in the heat exchanger before subsequently expanding said first portion in a Joule-Thompson valve prior to feeding the first portion to a distillation column system for separation therein;
• partially cooling a second portion of the purified residual gas stream in the heat exchanger and then cold expanding said second portion in a cold turbine prior to feeding the second portion to the distillation column system, wherein the cold turbine produces a second amount of export power;
• and
• withdrawing a nitrogen-enriched stream, an oxygen-enriched stream, and an argon-enriched stream from the distillation column system.