Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.

Declan Patrick O'Connor

Paul Higginbotham

Kelvin Graham Hayes

Adam Adrian Brostow

Patrick Alan Houghton

Rakesh Agrawal

Rodney John Allam

John Louis Griffiths

Donn Michael Herron

Donald W Woodward

Swaminathan Sunder

Mohammad Ali Kalbassi

William T Kleinberg

Arthur Ramsden Smith

Rebecca Cotton

Garret C Lau

John Lloyd Dillon, Iv

Jorge Anibal Mandler

Fang Xu

Christopher Suggitt

Swaninathan Sunder

Rebecca J Andrew

Christopher Richard Haben

David M Espie

A process for recovering at least one fluid (e.g. xenon gas and/or krypton gas, etc.) from a feed gas can include utilization of a compression system, primary heat exchanger unit, a pre-purification unit (PPU), and other units to separate and recover at least one desired fluid. In some embodiments, fluid flows output from a first heat exchanger or separation system of the plant can be split so that a portion of a stream is output for downstream processing to purify xenon (Xe) and/or krypton (Kr) product flow(s) while another portion of the stream is recycled to a compression system or the PPU to undergo further purification and heat exchange so that the product output for downstream processing has a higher concentration of Xe or Kr. Some embodiments can be configured to provide an improved recovery of Xe and/or Kr as well as an improvement in operational efficiency.

Fluid recovery process and apparatus for xenon and or krypton recovery

A heat exchanger can be configured to utilize multiple sections of hardway fins that can be configured so that an upper first section of the fins can build up liquid head and a second lower section of the fins can be configured to distribute liquid in an even, or uniform, manner. The first section of fins can utilize a different type of hole arrangement than the second section of fins. For instance, the diameter or width of the holes in the first section may differ from the diameter or width of the holes of the second section. In addition (or as an alternative), fin frequency and/or spacing between immediately adjacent holes in the first section of fins may be different from the spacing between immediately adjacent holes in the second section of fins.

Heat exchanger, hardway fin arrangement for a heat exchanger, and methods relating to same

A storage vessel comprises a condenser for condensing boil-off vapor by direct heat exchange with cryogenic liquid feed to the vessel. The condenser comprises a packed arrangement of vapor-liquid contact packing that comprises a top end portion and a bottom end portion. At least said top end portion is open to the vapor space to allow entry of boil-off vapor into the arrangement. The bottom end portion is in fluid flow communication with the lower portion of the storage vessel. One advantage of the invention is that the condenser is open to the vapor space of the storage vessel thereby allowing boil-off vapor to be drawn into the condenser by the condensation action of the vapor.

Storage vessel for cryogenic liquid

An adsorber vessel for use in the adsorption of a component from a gas and subsequent regeneration by thermally induced desorption of the component comprises an inlet for regeneration gas having an inlet nozzle containing at least one heater element, and an outlet for regeneration gas, the inlet and outlet for regeneration being separated by a flow path including a flow chamber containing a body of adsorbent, and wherein the body of adsorbent has a first end which is adjacent the inlet for regeneration gas and a second end which is remote from the inlet for regeneration gas, and the or each heater element is located so as not to penetrate through the first end of the body of adsorbent.

Apparatus for use in regenerating adsorbent

A back-up quantity of a 'first' gas is supplied temporarily to maintain the level of production of the first gas from a cryogenic separation of a gaseous mixture comprising the first gas and at least one other gas in the event of reduction in the level of production of said first gas from the separation. In the event of reduction in the level of production of said first gas from the separation, liquefied first gas inventory is withdrawn from the or at least one of said cryogenic distillation systems and vaporised to produce said back-up quantity of first gas. The invention has particular application to the production of gaseous oxygen ('GOX') from the separation of air.

Process and apparatus for cryogenic separation of gases

Krypton and/or xenon is separated crudely from a mixture comprising oxygen and at least one rare gas selected from the group consisting of krypton and xenon in a process comprising feeding said mixture or a mixture derived therefrom to a rare gas recovery system and separating said mixture feed in said rare gas recovery system into rare gas-lean gaseous oxygen ('GOX') and rare gas-enriched product. The process is characterized in that at least about 50 mol % of said mixture is fed to the rare gas recovery system in the gaseous phase provided that, when said mixture feed is separated by selective adsorption, the concentration of xenon in the mixture feed is no greater than 50 times the concentration of xenon in air. One advantage of a preferred embodiment of the present invention is that it can easily be retrofitted to existing pumped LOX cycle ASUs.

Process and apparatus for the recovery of krypton and/or xenon

Krypton and/or xenon is separated crudely from a mixture comprising oxygen and at least one rare gas selected from the group consisting of krypton and xenon in a process comprising feeding said mixture or a mixture derived therefrom to a rare gas recovery system and separating said mixture feed in said rare gas recovery system into rare gas-lean gaseous oxygen (&ldquo;GOX&rdquo;) and rare gas-enriched product. The process is characterized in that at least about 50 mol % of said mixture is fed to the rare gas recovery system in the gaseous phase provided that, when said mixture feed is separated by selective adsorption, the concentration of xenon in the mixture feed is no greater than 50 times the concentration of xenon in air. One advantage of a preferred embodiment of the present invention is that it can easily be retrofitted to existing pumped LOX cycle ASUs.

Liquid oxygen (&ldquo;LOX&rdquo;) product and a krypton- and xenon-enriched liquid product is produced from the cryogenic separation of air using a cryogenic distillation system. The process comprises separating feed air in the main distillation system into nitrogen-rich overhead vapor and said krypton- and xenon-enriched liquid product. At least a portion of said krypton- and xenon-enriched liquid product is removed from the main distillation system for further distillation, to produce at least one krypton- and/or xenon-rich product. Xenon-lean liquid is fed to the first additional distillation column and separated into oxygen-rich overhead vapor and said LOX product having a concentration of xenon less than that in said feed air. The xenon-lean liquid is usually also lean in krypton.

Process and apparatus for the cryogenic separation of air

Oxygen-containing gas comprising no more than about mol % oxygen is fed ( ) to an auxiliary separation column ( ) in a multiple column cryogenic air distillation system comprising at least a higher pressure (&ldquo;HP&rdquo;) column ( ) and a lower pressure (&ldquo;LP&rdquo;) column ( ) for separation into nitrogen-rich overhead vapor and oxygen-rich liquid. Oxygen-rich liquid is fed ( ) from the auxiliary column ( ) to an intermediate location in the LP column ( ). The auxiliary column ( ) is refluxed with a liquid stream from or derived from the HP column ( ). One advantage of the invention is that the diameter of the upper sections (II, III) of the LP column ( ) need no longer be larger than the diameter of the rest of the column system thereby increasing the capacity of the column system (under the constraint of a defined maximum column section diameter).

A process for producing a nitrogen-enriched vapor product from a supply of a nitrogen-rich liquid uses a purifying device and a distillation column having a distillation zone. The process includes the steps of: feeding at least a portion of the supply of the nitrogen-rich liquid to the distillation zone at a first location; feeding a stream of a gas containing nitrogen and at least one contaminant to the purifying device, wherein the gas is cooled by a cryogenic liquid whereby at least a portion of the at least one contaminant condenses, solidifies, or dissolves; eventually feeding at least a portion of the cool gas from the purifying device to the distillation zone at a second location below the first location; withdrawing a stream of the nitrogen-enriched vapor product from the distillation zone; and withdrawing a stream of an oxygen-enriched liquid from the distillation zone.

Nitrogen generation process

A process of liquefying gas to produce a liquid cryogen comprising compressing a gas stream using a compressor, work expanding the compressed gas stream using at least one expansion turbine to produce an expanded gas stream together with power, mechanically transferring the power generated by the expansion turbine(s) to drive the compressor, using the expanded gas stream to provide refrigeration duty for liquefaction, and recycling the cooled expanded compressed gas stream to the compressor.

Method and apparatus for the production of a liquid cryogen

High pressure gaseous oxygen is obtained safely and without compression by heating pumped liquid oxygen in a printed circuit type heat exchanger having layers of transversely extending laterally spaced channels with each layer being in thermal contact with at least one other layer. Oxygen is vaporized in channels of oxygen-layers against heat exchange fluid passing through channels of heat exchange layers. The walls of the oxygen layer channels are formed of ferrous alloy and have a cross-section, in a plane perpendicular to the direction of flow, having a thickness at its narrowest of at least about 10%, and on average at least about 15%, of the combined hydraulic mean diameters of the adjacent channels, and the ratio of cross-sectional area, in said plane, of the walls to the cross-sectional area of the channels is no less than about 0.7.

Apparatus and method of heating pumped liquid oxygen

A process and system for controlling a cryogenic air separation unit during rapid changes in production. During operation of an air separation unit, demands for oxygen will vary and the pressure of the feed air will fluctuate. The changes in oxygen demand and feed air pressure translate into a ramping, either up or down, of the distillation system pressure in the air separation unit. Because the product streams have tight purity requirements, the ramping system pressure (which could adversely affect product purity) is compensated for. This compensation is by way of a net transfer of refrigeration, in the form of liquid nitrogen, into and out of the distillation system. This transfer of refrigeration is implemented using a storage vessel of liquid nitrogen connected to the reflux path of the distillation system. Liquid nitrogen via the reflux path is removed and stored or added to the distillation system to decrease or increase the refrigeration, respectively.

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Chessington, United Kingdom

Declan Patrick O'Connor