Process and plant for the production of a gas under pressure by cryogenic distillation
AssigneeL'Air Liquide, Societe Anonyme pour l'Etude et l'Exploitation des Procedes Georges Claude
InventorsMike De L'Isle, Yves Koeberle
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In a process for the production of gas under pressure by cryogenic distillation, the gas is produced by vaporizing (or pseudo-vaporizing) a liquid drawn off from a distillation column. In order to supply additional gas under pressure, a flow of a gas coming from an external source is at least partially liquefied, and the liquid thus formed is added to the liquid drawn off from the column before or after an optional pressurization step.
Claims17
Process for the production of a gas under pressure in a cryogenic separation apparatus, comprising the steps of:
- i) cooling in a heat exchanger a fluid to be separated and sending it to a distillation column of the apparatus;
- ii) drawing off a liquid flow from the column of the apparatus;
- iii) adding at least one make-up liquid to the liquid flow drawn off in step ii);
- iv) heating the mixture thus formed by the make-up liquid and the liquid flow drawn off by indirect heat exchange in the exchanger;
- and
- v) recovering a gas under pressure at an outlet of the apparatus.
An improved plant for the production of a gas flow under pressure by cryogenic distillation, comprising at least one distillation column (13, 14), a heat exchanger (9), means (1A, 1B, 1C) for sending a fluid to be separated by distillation to the distillation column (13, 14), means (31) for drawing off a liquid from the distillation column (14), and means for sending the drawn-off liquid to the heat exchanger (9) in order to heat the drawn-off liquid, the improvement comprising:
- means (27) for adding a make-up liquid to the drawn-off liquid upstream of the exchanger and means for sending the mixture thus formed to the exchanger (9) in order to form the gas under pressure.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.