L'air Liquide, Soci&#xe9;t&#xe9; Anonyme Pour L'etude Et L'exploitation Des Proc&#xe9;d&#xe9;s Georges Claude

Delphine Vallier

Patrice Cavagne

Remy Kurtz

Alain Guillard

Xavier Pontone

An air separation unit using cryogenic distillation comprises a first column, a second column thermally linked to the first column, a first argon column, a second argon column, means for sending cooled, compressed and purified air to at least the first column, means for sending at least one fluid enriched in nitrogen from the first column to the second column and at least one fluid enriched in oxygen from the first column to the second column, means for sending a gas enriched in argon from the second column to a first end of the first argon column, means for sending gas from a second end of the first argon column to a first end of the second argon column, means for removing argon rich fluid from a second end of the second argon column, a pump, means for removing argon enriched liquid from the first end of the second argon column and sending it to the second end of the first argon column via the pump, the first end of the first argon column being raised above the ground by a first supporting structure, the pump being positioned within the first supporting structure, such that the pump is at least partially underneath the first end of the first argon column.

Growing community of inventors

Saint Pierre la Garenne, France

Delphine Vallier