Vaporization of liquid oxygen for increased argon recovery
AssigneeAir Products and Chemicals, Inc.
InventorsRakesh Agrawal, Terrence F. Yee
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention relates to an improvement for the production of argon from cyrogenic air separation processes. In particular, the improvement comprises satisfying a portion of the crude argon column condensing duty with refrigeration provided from the vaporization of a portion of the liquid oxygen from the bottom of the low pressure column.
Claims13
In a cryogenic air distillation process producing argon from feed air using a multiple column distillation system comprising a high pressure column, a low pressure column and a crude argon column wherein a liquid oxygen bottoms is produced in the low pressure column and wherein the crude argon column has a condensing duty, the improvement for increasing argon recovery comprising satisfying a first portion of the crude argon column condensing duty with refrigeration provided from the vaporization of at least a portion of the liquid oxygen bottoms from the low pressure column at reduced pressure and satisfying a second portion of said duty with refrigeration provided from the vaporization of any other process liquid.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.