L'air Liquide, Societe Anonyme a Directoire Et Conseil De Surveillance Pour L'etude Et L'exploitation Des Procedes Georges Claude

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

L&prime;air Liquide-societe Anonyme a Directoire Et Conseil De Surveillance Pour L&prime;etude Et L&prime;exploitation Des Procedes Georges Claude

Daniel Gourdain

Jean-Marc Peyron

Alain Guillard

Patrick Le Bot

Emmanuel Garnier

Jean-Pierre Gourbier

Francois Dehaine

Gilles Bracque

Frederic Judas

Alain Grelaud

Michel Mouliney

A process and an apparatus for separating air by cryogenic distillation. The apparatus has a medium pressure column thermally coupled to a low pressure column. Compressed and purified air is cooled to cryogenic temperature in an exchanger, and sent at least partly to the medium pressure column. Streams enriched in oxygen and nitrogen are sent from the medium pressure column to the low pressure column and, streams enriched in nitrogen and oxygen are removed from the low pressure.

Process for separating air by cryogenic distillation and installation for implementing this process

To reduce the level of oxygen concentration in the waste gases emitted by the stack of such installations, according to the invention, connecting means ( ) connect the respective internal spaces of a chamber ( ), for discharging an inert gas miscible with oxygen and of lower density than air, such as nitrogen, and of the stat ( ); thus, this inert gas is mixed with at least the oxygen flowing through the stack and the mixture obtained is discharged with a velocity at least equal to approximately 7 m/s at the exit of the stack.

Installation and method of venting the waste gases of air distillation or liquefaction units

To reduce the level of oxygen concentration in the waste gases emitted by the stack of such installations, according to the invention, connecting means ( ) connect the respective internal spaces of a chamber ( ), for discharging an inert gas miscible with oxygen and of lower density than air, such as nitrogen, and of the stack ( ); thus, this inert gas is mixed with at least the oxygen flowing through the stack and the mixture obtained is discharged with a velocity at least equal to approximately 7 m/s at the exit of the stack.

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

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Lagny sur Marne, France

Daniel Gourdain