L'air Liquide, Societe Anonyme Pour L'etude Et L'exploitation Des

Alain Grelaud

Alain Guillard

Jean-Pierre Gourbier

Francois Dehaine

Gilles Bracque

Michel Mouliney

Norbert Rieth

Francois Venet

Pascal Arriulou

Daniel Gourdain

Air distillation installation comprising: (A) an air compressor group (1) whose output is connected to an outlet coupling (11); (B) two cylinders (2A, 2B) for the purification of air by adsorption having inlet/outlet couplings (12A, 12B); (C) a first framework (13) in which are mounted: (a) the accessories downstream of the compressor such as an assembly (14, 17) for precooling air; (b) accessories of the purification cylinders, such as an assembly of valves and a regeneration gas reheater (18); and (c) the connection conduits of the mentioned accessories, with their safety members and their automatic and/or remotely controlled valves, these conduits terminating in couplings (15, 22A, 22B, 23) for connection to other portions (1, 2A, 2B, 4) of the installation, and the corresponding monitoring, control and instrumentation members (21); (D) a second framework (31) in which are mounted: (d) the principal heat exchangers (24) and the subcoolers (25); (e) the assembly of the cold accessories such as the cryogenic valves and the cryogenic pumps (26) and the expansion turbines (27); and (f) the conduits for connecting the elements mounted in the second framework, with their safety members and their automatic and/or remotely controlled valves, these conduits terminating in couplings (29, 30) for connection to other portions (3, 5) of the installation; (E) an air distillation column (5) provided with a certain number of couplings (33) for the inlet and outlet of fluids; and (F) tubes (6) for connection between the associated couplings (11-15, 12A-22A, 12B-22B, 23-29, 30-33) of the portions (A) to (E) of the installation.

Installation for the distillation of air

A cryogenic unit for the separation of gases includes at least one distillation column (1) is preassembled in the factory. The column (1) with added tubing elements (2) constitutes a pre-equipped subassembly which is transported and installed at the worksite. The tubing elements are disposed so as to be inscribed in at least one elongated volume (3; 3.sub.1, 3.sub.2) lateral to the column and of reduced section. The subassembly (1,2) is disposed on at least one transport cradle (4, 4') and transported to the worksite on the cradle and mounted at the worksite in a cold box (10) Preferably, all the tubing elements are disposed in the cradle. The subassembly, with or without the cradle, is mounted adjacent one side wall of the cold box (10) and is spaced by insulation (13) from at least one liquid gas reservoir (11; 12) also in the cold box (10).

Process for the construction of a cryogenic unit for the separation of

Indirect heat exchanger, of the type comprising a series of parallel plates (7) delimiting between themselves passages (8A, 8B; 28, 42, 60) of generally plate form containing undulant spacers (9; 32, 34, 36, 37, 44, 47, 48, 53 to 56). A first assembly (8A; 28, 60) of these passages constitutes thermal exchange passages having structure (3 to 5; 39 to 41, 51) for inlet and outlet of fluids adapted to exchange heat with each other. Over at least a portion of its length and of its width, the exchanger has added passages (8B; 42), in reduced or no heat exchange relation with the thermal exchange passages (8A; 28, 60) and provided to fulfill at least one function in addition to the exchange of heat, namely a function of storing liquid and/or recirculation of liquid and/or liquid-vapor separation.

Indirect heat exchanger

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La Queue-en-Brie, France

Alain Grelaud