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

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

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

Jean-Pierre Gourbier

Alain Guillard

Francois Dehaine

Gilles Bracque

Alain Grelaud

Michel Mouliney

Jean-Yves Lehman

Bernard Saulnier

Norbert Rieth

Emmanuel Garnier

Lasad Jaouani

Frédéric Judas

Daniel Gourdain

Lucien Greter

Frédéric Staine

Denis Cote

Richard Pawulski

Giovanni Massimo

Roger Vancauwenberghe

Laurent Ballanger

This disclosure discusses providing safer and more accessible insulating cold boxes for cryogenic equipment. A cold box of the current invention includes a housing partially extending out of the cold box jacket wherein equipment that may need to be accessed can be located. The housing includes a breakaway barrier between the main cold box and the external housing to allow overpressures to be relieved into the cold box. Cold boxes may contain cryogenic columns, sections of cryogenic columns, distillation columns, mixing columns, storage vessels, pressure vessels, heat exchangers, and combinations thereof. The housing may contain auxiliary elements such as rotating equipment, pumps, turboexpanders, instrument devices, valves, and piping. Placing auxiliary elements in a housing outside the main cold box allows for safer access to cryogenic equipment.

Cold box and cryogenic plant including a cold box

The invention concerns a method for driving at least a compression machine () of an air distillation unit () which supplies oxygen and/or nitrogen and/or argon to an industrial plant () producing water vapour. In normal running conditions, the compression machine is driven at least partly by a steam turbine () fed with said water vapour, which is input at an input port () of the turbine. The turbine has two input ports () which correspond to different intake pressures. During at least one operating phase of said plant (), the turbine is partly supplied with water vapour from an auxiliary water vapour source () and input at the turbine other input port (). The invention is useful for supplying air gas to a synthetic hydrocarbon production plant.

Method and installation for steam production and air distillation

An apparatus and method for air distillation. Two cold boxes and an air treatment unit are used to distill air. The cold boxes contain a heat exchanger for cooling the air to be distilled and an air distillation unit for producing either oxygen, nitrogen or argon. The air treatment unit has many individual treatment elements which are connected in parallel. The outlet of the air treatment unit is connected to both cold boxes and to all the individual treatment units.

Production unit for large quantities of oxygen and/or nitrogen

In a process for separating argon-enriched gas, the gas is purified of oxygen in a first column ( ) and then a stream ( ) removed from the top of the first column is sent into a stripping column ( ). The product ( ) is withdrawn as bottoms therefrom.

Process and plant for producing argon by cryogenic distillation

The distillation unit includes at least one cryogenic distilling column and at least one heat exchanger, arranged in a chamber with a double casing in which the intermediate partition contains a solid insulator. The unit can be on board offshore floating terminals and drilling platforms.

Cold box for cryogenic distilling plant

A cryogenic distillation apparatus comprising a system of columns (,) also includes at least one external source of a gas other than a column of the system and means for sending this pressurized gas to the first pump (,) in order to serve as barrier gas for a pump (,) and/or at least one external source (,) of liquid other than a column of the system and means for vaporizing at least one portion of this liquid and for sending the vapour thus formed to the first pump in order to serve as barrier gas and/or means (,) for withdrawing a liquid from a column of the system and for vaporizing at least one portion thereof downstream of the first or of the second pump in order to deliver a barrier gas (,) for the first pump.

Process and plant for separating a gaseous mixture by cryogenic distillation

A thermally insulated adsorber (1) intended for treating a gas by passing the gas through a bed (15) of an active material, of the type including a cylindrical shell (5) provided with thermal insulation (21) including a wall (25), which is, in particular, parallel to the shell (5) and which, together with the shell, defines a gas-filled cavity (27), the wall (25) and consequently the gas-filled cavity (27) being placed inside the shell (5), between the latter and a bed (15) of an active material arranged inside the shell (5). The gas-filled cavity (27) communicates with a part of the adsorber (1) which includes the gas that is to be treated and/or with a part of the adsorber which includes the gas that has been treated. The adsorber furthermore includes elements (43) for blocking any gas flow through the gas-filled cavity in order to separate the gas that is to be treated from the gas that has been treated. The adsorber may be used to purify the air sent to air distillation plants.

Thermally insulated adsorber

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).

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Le Plessis Trevise, France

Jean-Pierre Gourbier