Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.

Roger M McGuinness

Rakesh Agrawal

Jeffrey Alan Hopkins

Steven L Feldman

Janice C Peterson

John D Dubbs

Thaddeus N Dobracki

Nellie Cilen

A process for making high purity argon is disclosed in which crude argon containing less than about 0.8 mol % oxygen is recovered from air in a cryogenic distillation system, the crude argon is purified by removing oxygen in a getter system, and other impurities are removed by cryogenic distillation to yield a high purity argon product. The crude argon purification system is heat integrated with the main cryogenic air separation system. High purity argon can be produced at argon recoveries greater than 90% by utilizing structured packing in at least a portion of the argon sidearm column.

Production of high purity argon

The present invention is a liquefaction process for atmospheric gases. In the process, one or more atmospheric gas streams (e.g., air, nitrogen, etc.) are compressed in a compression zone to provide both an intermediate stream and a high pressure stream. The high pressure stream is then cooled and at least a portion of it is expanded to provide refrigeration. The remaining high pressure stream is then further cooled and expanded whereby it is partially liquefied and separated into a vapor stream and a liquid atmospheric gas product stream. The intermediate pressure stream is cooled and at least a portion of it is expanded to provide refrigeration. The remaining intermediate pressure stream is further cooled and combined with the expanded portion of the high pressure stream and expanded to provide refrigeration. The discharge from this expansion, the vapor stream, and the discharge of the expansion of the portion of the intermediate pressure stream are warmed and recycled to the compression zone. The process of the present invention can include the use of companders and a dense-fluid expander.

Recycle liquefier process

The present invention is a process for the production of 99.999+% pure oxygen. The process comprises a cryogenic distillation system which removes impurities from oxygen. The process can be operated independently of an air separation unit by using an external source to provide reboil and condensing duties for the distillation column.

Ultra pure liquid oxygen cycle

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Macungie, PA, United States of America

Roger M McGuinness