Apparatus and process for improved argon recovery
AssigneeAir Products and Chemicals, Inc.
InventorsJay A. Thakkar, Alan D. Berger, Donn Michael Herron
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Abstract
An apparatus and process for argon recovery can be configured so that an argon-enriched stream including oxygen therein can be recycled to a column for air separation and subsequent argon separation to provide improved argon recovery with reduced power. The recycling of this argon-enriched stream can be provided such that there is sufficient nitrogen within the column to facilitate separation of argon from oxygen within the column so additional argon that can be provided via the recycling can be separated and purified instead of being output as a waste stream or otherwise lost.
Claims6
A process for separation of a feed gas comprising oxygen, nitrogen, and argon, the process comprising:
- outputting an oxygen-enriched stream from a first column of an air separation unit (ASU), the first column operating at a pressure that is greater than a pressure of a second column of the ASU;
- (a) passing at least a portion of the oxygen-enriched stream output from the first column through:
- (i) a reboiler-condenser of a third column to facilitate condensation of an argon-rich stream outputtable from the third column and outputting of the at least the portion of the oxygen-enriched stream as a recyclable oxygen-enriched stream that is gaseous or is a combination of gas and liquid, and
- (ii) a recyclable oxygen-enriched vapor stream formation device positioned upstream of the reboiler-condenser of the third column so a vaporized portion of the oxygen-enriched stream output from the first column is output from the recyclable oxygen-enriched vapor stream formation device as a recyclable oxygen-enriched vapor stream that is gaseous;
- and
- (b) outputting a recyclable oxygen-enriched stream from the second column;
- and
- passing the recyclable oxygen-enriched stream output from the second column, and/or passing at least a portion of the recyclable oxygen-enriched stream output from the reboiler-condenser of the of the third column and/or passing at least a portion of the recyclable oxygen-enriched vapor stream that is gaseous output from the recyclable oxygen-enriched vapor stream formation device upstream of the first column, second column, and third column, for mixing with a feed stream and subsequently being fed to the first column and/or the second column of the ASU.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.