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US 6,253,577 B1Granted
Cryogenic air separation process for producing elevated pressure gaseous oxygen
AssigneePraxair Technology, Inc.
InventorsBayram Arman, Dante Patrick Bonaquist, Joseph Alfred Weber, Mark Edward Vincett
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Abstract
A cryogenic air separation process having improved flexibility and operating efficiency for producing elevated pressure gaseous oxygen by vaporizing pressurized liquid oxygen wherein refrigeration generation for the process is decoupled from the flow of process streams and is produced by one or more multicomponent refrigerant fluid circuits.
Claims10
A process for the production of elevated pressure gaseous oxygen comprising:
- (A) compressing a multicomponent refrigerant fluid, cooling the compressed multicomponent refrigerant fluid, expanding the cooled, compressed multicomponent refrigerant fluid, and warming the expanded multicomponent refrigerant fluid by indirect heat exchange with said cooling compressed multicomponent refrigerant fluid and also with feed air to produce cooled feed air;
- (B) passing the cooled feed air into a higher pressure cryogenic rectification column and separating the feed air by cryogenic rectification within the higher pressure cryogenic rectification column to produce oxygen-enriched fluid;
- (C) passing the oxygen-enriched fluid into a lower pressure cryogenic rectification column, and producing oxygen-rich liquid by cryogenic rectification within the lower pressure column;
- (D) withdrawing oxygen-rich liquid from the lower pressure column, elevating the pressure of the oxygen-rich liquid to produce elevated pressure oxygen-rich liquid, and vaporizing the elevated pressure oxygen-rich liquid by indirect heat exchange with the multicomponent refrigerant fluid to produce oxygen rich gas;
- and
- (E) recovering the oxygen-rich gas as product elevated pressure gaseous oxygen.
3 more elements
A process for the production of elevated pressure gaseous oxygen comprising:
- (A) compressing a high temperature multicomponent refrigerant fluid, cooling the compressed high temperature multicomponent refrigerant fluid, expanding the cooled, compressed high temperature multicomponent refrigerant fluid, and warming the expanded high temperature multicomponent refrigerant fluid by indirect heat exchange with said cooling compressed high temperature multicomponent refrigerant fluid and with low temperature multicomponent refrigerant fluid and also with feed air;
- (B) compressing low temperature multicomponent refrigerant fluid, cooling the compressed low temperature multicomponent refrigerant fluid, expanding the cooled, compressed low temperature multicomponent refrigerant fluid, and warming the expanded low temperature multicomponent refrigerant fluid by indirect heat exchange with said cooling compressed low temperature multicomponent refrigerant fluid and also with feed air to produce cooled feed air;
- (C) passing the cooled feed air into a higher pressure cryogenic rectification column and separating the feed air by cryogenic rectification within the higher pressure cryogenic rectification column to produce oxygen-enriched fluid;
- (D) passing the oxygen-enriched fluid into a lower pressure cryogenic rectification column, and producing oxygen-rich liquid by cryogenic rectification within the lower pressure column;
- (E) withdrawing oxygen-rich liquid from the lower pressure column, elevating the pressure of the oxygen-rich liquid, and vaporizing the elevated pressure oxygen-rich liquid by indirect heat exchange with the low temperature multicomponent refrigerant fluid to produce oxygen-rich gas;
- and
- (F) recovering the oxygen-rich gas as product elevated pressure gaseous oxygen.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.