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

Remy Kurtz

Patrice Cavagne

Alain Briglia

Delphine Vallier

Vincent Gueret

Lasad Jaouani

Eric Day

Huali Xie

Jia Ding

Baptiste Fara

Chenxi Gao

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.

Air separation unit by cryogenic distillation

A cryogenic air separation setup in a cold box, wherein gaseous oxygen under elevated pressure is produced through hydraulic force caused by the geodetic distance between where liquid oxygen is drawn from the distillation column and where liquid oxygen is vaporized to form gaseous oxygen, such as in an auxiliary evaporator. To increase the vertical distance between the above-mentioned two location, the components are arranged directly below one another in the following sequence: the lower-pressure column, the main condenser evaporator, the higher-pressure column, the subcooler, the main heat exchanger and the auxiliary evaporator). In particular, the main heat-exchanger is positioned with the cold-end on the top to optimize piping expenditure.

Single packaged air separation apparatus with reverse main heat exchanger

A heat exchanger assembly and a method for assembling the heat exchanger assembly is provided. The heat exchanger assembly comprises a first heat exchanger and a second heat exchanger, and a subcooler; a first heat exchanger cold box, for accommodating the first heat exchanger and heat exchange fluid pipelines, with a first opening being disposed in a side of the first heat exchanger cold box, and a first group of pipelines extending through the first opening; a second heat exchanger cold box, for accommodating the second heat exchanger and heat exchange fluid pipelines, with a second opening being disposed in a side of the second heat exchanger cold box, and a second group of pipelines extending through the second opening; a subcooler cold box, for accommodating the subcooler and heat exchange fluid pipelines, with a third opening and a fourth opening being disposed in a side of the subcooler cold box, and a third group of pipelines and a fourth group of pipelines extending through the third opening and the fourth opening respectively, wherein the first group of pipelines and the third group of pipelines are connected and encapsulated in a first thermally isolating casing, and the second group of pipelines and the fourth group of pipelines are connected and encapsulated in a second thermally isolating casing.

Heat exchanger assembly and method for assembling same

Disclosed in the present invention are a cold box steel structure and method for prefabricating and transporting the cold box steel structure. The cold box steel structure is a cuboid architecture, and has a long edge, a wide edge and a high edge of lengths L, W and H respectively, wherein L&#x3e;W and L&#x3e;H; the cold box steel structure comprises first and second rectangular base faces, each being an outer surface of the cuboid architecture comprising the long edge and the wide edge, and the cold box steel structure is prefabricated as two partial components taking a plane parallel to the rectangular base faces as a boundary; the total height of a first partial cold box steel structure component thereof, taking the first rectangular base face as a first transportation bottom face, is h, and the total height of a second partial cold box steel structure component, taking the second rectangular base face as a second transportation bottom face, is h; if the height difference between the transportation bottom face and the ground or a water surface is h, then (h+h) corresponds to a transportation height of the first partial cold box steel structure component, and (h+h) corresponds to a transportation height of the second partial cold box steel structure component; the transportation height of either of the cold box steel structure components should be smaller than a maximum permitted transportation height h.

Cold box steel structure and method for prefabricating and transporting same

The present invention relates to a skid-mounted cold box and its prefabricated structure and assembly method. Each prefabricated structure includes a framework and a first panel that is used to enclose sides of the framework. Ring beams of two adjacent prefabricated structures are connected through bolts on site. A second panel connected through bolts encloses the gap between ring beams of the two adjacent prefabricated structures from sides. The present invention cancels all field welding seams and omits the field welding and nondestructive testing operations. The crane can be dismissed after the upper prefabricated structure of the cold box is lifted into place and bolts corresponding to columns on ring beams are connected. The present invention guarantees the connection strength of steel structures relying on bolt-based connection between ring beams and the second panel connected through bolts guarantees the airtightness of the cold box. This effectively reduces field assembly work and saves time and cost.

Skid-mounted cold box and its prefabricated structure and assembly method

An apparatus for the distillation of air by cryogenic distillation is provided. The apparatus can include an enclosure; a first distillation column configured to operate at a first pressure; a second distillation column configured to operate at a second pressure that is lower than the first pressure, the second distillation column being placed above the first distillation column and forming therewith a double column; a subcooling heat exchanger configured to cool at least one liquid from the first distillation column upstream of the second distillation column and configured to warm a gaseous nitrogen stream from the second distillation column; and an argon column configured to separate an argon enriched stream from the second distillation column and configured to produce an argon rich stream. In certain embodiments, the first distillation column, the second distillation column, the argon column and the subcooling heat exchanger are disposed within the enclosure, and/or the subcooling heat exchanger is disposed directly underneath the first distillation column or the argon column.

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Zhejiang, China

Remy Kurtz