American Air Liquide, Inc.

Other

Air Liquide America, L.p.

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

Liquid Air Corporation

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

Frederick W Giacobbe

Kevin P McKean

Robert W Connors

Michael G Pizzo

Joseph E Paganessi

Pavol Pranda

Eric L Duchateau

Benjamin Jurcik

Benjamin J Jurcik, Jr

Fabienne Chatel-Pelage

M Usman Ghani

Frederic Rotman

Florian Gautier

Nicolas Perrin

Yves Bourhis

Apparatus and methods for improved combustion of oxygen and a mixture of a non-gaseous fuel, which includes providing: 1) a source of a mixture of non-gaseous fuel and conveying gas; 2) a source of oxygen; 3) a burner operatively associated with a combustion chamber; 4) a fuel duct in fluid communication with the source of mixed non-gaseous fuel and conveying gas; 5) a tubular oxygen lance fluidly communicating with the source of oxygen; and 6) at least two injection elements in fluid communication with the source of oxygen. The fuel duct includes a portion that extends along an axis towards the burner. The lance is disposed along the axis and has a diameter D. The injection elements are configured to inject oxygen into, and mix therewith, a flow of the mixture upstream of, or at, the burner. At least one of the injection elements receives oxygen from the lance. The injection elements are spaced apart by a distance X, which is greater than the length of diameter D.

Method and apparatus for injecting a gas into a two-phase stream

Methods and apparatus for purifying gases having organic impurities, including the use of granulated porous glass. The method of the invention includes the following steps. An impure gas comprising a first gas and an organic compound is provided. A packed bed of granulated porous glass is provided. The impure gas is allowed to flow into the packed bed, thereby preferentially adsorbing at least some of the organic compound on the granulated porous glass to yield a purified gas having a concentration of the organic compound that is lower than that of the impure gas. The purified gas is allowed to flow out of the packed bed.

Methods for purifying gases having organic impurities using granulated porous glass

Methods and apparatus for purifying gases having organic impurities, including the use of granulated porous glass. A system for purifying an impure gas includes a source of an impure gas, a purification element operatively associated with the source of impure gas for purifying the impure gas, and a conduit operatively associated with the purification element for receiving a flow of purified impure gas from the purification element and directing the purified impure gas to a container or point of use. The impure gas includes a first gas and an organic compound. The purification element includes a vessel containing a packed bed of granulated porous glass.

Systems for purifying gases having organic impurities using granulated porous glass

ozone is dissolved ozone in a liquid cryogen. A container containing a liquified cryogen is provided. A gaseous stream of ozone is allowed to flow into at least one adsorption unit containing an adsorbent material, thereby adsorbing ozone thereupon. The cryogen is allowed to flow from the container to the at least one adsorption unit and therethrough thereby extracting an amount of the ozone adsorbed upon the adsorbent material, wherein the cryogen is in either a liquid, gaseous or supercritical phase as it flows through the adsorption unit. ozone becomes dissolved in the cryogen.

Methods of dissolving ozone in a cryogen

Disclosed are methods and apparatus to measure specific mass increases (due to the absorption of moisture) that occur in materials and for predicting moisture absorption in materials. In one method, pre-dried plastic encapsulated microchip packages (PEMs) are exposed to moist air over a period of time and moisture absorption is determined over a period of time resulting in prediction of moisture absorption of a particular material and determination of methods of care and storage of material to prevent excessive moisture absorption.

Methods and apparatus for estimating moisture absorption by hygroscopic materials

A method of treating an object containing a material of metal, oxidized metal, non-metal, and the like and combinations thereof. The method includes (a) exposing an object to a controlled gas atmosphere, and (b) during at least a portion of time during such exposing, subjecting a specific area of the material to an energy beam, preferably a focused energy beam, more preferably a focused and filtered energy beam, having sufficient intensity to provide for the treating of the specific area. Such treating includes heating, welding, cutting, dicing, soldering, singulating, reducing, oxidizing, fusing, melting, and the like and combinations thereof. The energy beam source can be a laser selected from a group which includes YAG lasers, excimer lasers, gas lasers, semiconductor lasers, solid-state lasers, dye lasers, X-ray lasers, free-electron lasers, ion lasers, gas mixture lasers, chemical lasers, and the like and combinations thereof. The method can further include contacting the material with a second material or several second materials. Such contacting can include welding, soldering, fusing, melting, joining, bonding, and the like and combinations thereof.

Methods and apparatus for localized heating of metallic and non-metallic surfaces

Heat transfer fluid mixtures and methods of making and using same are presented. The inventive heat transfer fluid mixtures consist essentially of at least one light gas, such as hydrogen, and at least one heavy fluid, such as helium wherein the mixture will not be capable of mixing with air in any proportions to produce a self-sustaining flammable or combustible mixture, or wherein a concentration of hydrogen is sufficient to reduce cost of the mixture to an amount substantially less than cost of pure helium.

Heat transfer fluids and methods of making and using same comprising hydrogen, helium and combinations thereof

Methods of cooling an object are presented, the methods comprising contacting a heat transfer fluid with a liquid cryogen to form a precooled, substantially pure heat transfer fluid, and contacting the object with the precooled substantially pure heat transfer fluid to form a cooled object and a recycle flow of the heat transfer fluid. The heat transfer fluid consists essentially of a compound selected from the group consisting of substantially pure hydrogen, substantially pure helium, substantially pure argon, substantially pure nitrogen, and substantially pure carbon dioxide. Each of the contacting steps may be either direct contact, indirect contact, or combinations thereof.

Low temperature heat transfer methods

Apparatus and process for removing carbon monoxide from a gas stream comprising a major portion of an inert gas and a minor portion of carbon monoxide are provided. The process involves contacting a feed gas stream with at least a primary metal oxide in a reaction zone of a reactor vessel at conditions effective to convert substantially all of the carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide, thus producing a purified gas stream consisting essentially of the inert gas and carbon dioxide and substantially free of carbon monoxide. This process has (inter alia) a particular application as a tertiary purification process for producing a more highly purified source of gaseous nitrogen from a source of nitrogen originally produced from a conventional membrane air separation system, wherein the oxygen concentration in the nitrogen stream my vary around a setpoint value, and then further (or secondarily) purified by converting excess oxygen in the nitrogen to carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide using a fuel gas/combustion process, wherein the carbon monoxide concentration varies due to varying oxygen concentration in the feed stream to the combustion process.

Process and apparatus for removing carbon monoxide from a gas stream

A circuit board is wave soldered as it is carried by a conveyor through a solder wave established in a solder reservoir. Disposed on both sides of the solder wave are gas plenums which discharge shield gas. The gas plenums include orifices for directing shield gas (i) at high velocity toward the solder wave to protect the solder wave with an atmosphere of shield gas, and/or (ii) upwardly toward an underside of the circuit board to strip entrained air therefrom. The solder wave is generated by a pump driven by a drive shaft that extends downwardly into the solder reservoir. An upper portion of the drive shaft is surrounded by a stationary hollow sleeve which projects into the solder reservoir to restrict the churning of the solder during rotation of the drive shaft. A shield gas is introduced into the sleeve to inert the solder being churned. An enclosure is positioned above the solder reservoir having an inlet and an outlet through which the circuit boards are conveyed. Curtains are positioned across portions of the inlet and outlet not occupied by the conveyor, the curtains being automatically adjusted when the width of the conveyor is adjusted.

Process and apparatus for the wave soldering of circuit boards

A circuit board is wave soldered as it is carried by a conveyor through a solder wave established in a solder reservoir. Disposed on both sides of the solder wave are gas plenums which discharge shield gas. Each gas plenum includes a top wall, a side wall, and a bottom wall. The side wall is spaced horizontally from the wave, and the bottom wall is submerged within the solder. The side and (optionally) top walls include orifices for directing shield gas (i) at high velocity toward the solder wave to protect the solder wave with an atmosphere of shield gas, and (ii) upwardly toward an underside of the circuit board to strip entrained air therefrom. Instead of being submerged within the solder, the bottom wall could be spaced above the solder and provided with orifices to emit shield gas downwardly between the plenum and solder reservoir to create an inert atmosphere above the solder. Dividers disposed within the plenum form sub-chambers communicating with orifices in respective walls of the plenum so that different gas velocities can be entitled from the orifices. The gas plenums can be rotatably adjustable and further adjustable either vertically or horizontally.

Apparatus and methods for inerting solder during wave soldering

Workpieces of metal are treated with a high temperature, ambient pressure argon arc plasma system to facilitate surface and through hardening. The argon flame is directed against the outer surface of the rotating workpiece. The surface temperature is monitored by a non contact I.R. temperature sensor and controlled by varying the inert gas flowrate through the plasma generator and/or varying the electrical power input to the plasma generator.

Process for heat treating metals or metal alloys in a thermal plasma

A process and an apparatus for removing impurities from liquified gases at cryogenic temperatures is provided which can be utilized on site at every stage of transport and storage subsequent to manufacture and prior to use. Liquified gas to be purified which is at cryogenic temperatures is passed preferably through a prefilter to remove solid particulates, followed by passage through an adsorbent bed to remove impurities from the gas and then through a postfilter to remove any entrained particles of adsorbent material from the gas stream. The process can be made continuous between, for example, a storage tank and an adsorption device. The apparatus includes at least one chamber having adsorbent material substantially filling it. A prefilter removes particulates upsteam of the adsorbent chamber and a postfilter downstream of said adsorbent chamber removes entrained adsorbent bed material. Use of two or more adsorbent chambers permits regeneration of one or more chambers while the remaining adsorbent chambers are being used for adsorption.

Growing community of inventors

Naperville, IL, United States of America

Frederick W Giacobbe