Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.

Thorogood, Robert M.

Kleinberg, William T.

William T Kleinberg

Rakesh Agrawal

Douglas Paul Dee

Mark Robert Pillarella

Nasim Ul Hassan Malik

Fang Xu

Ravi Kumar

Donn Michael Herron

Edward Landis Weist, Jr

Robert M Thorogood

Gowri Krishnamurthy

Tarik Naheiri

Declan Patrick O'Connor

Sang Kook Lee

Patrick Alan Houghton

Xukun Luo

Stephen John Gibbon

David Edward Guro

Michaela Pollock

Jochen Rainer Fischer

Leigh A Stapf

King Wai Hung

Reza Alvani

Ajay K Modi

Garrett C Lau

A heat exchanger apparatus can be configured so that there is at least one 'U' or “C” shape configured manifold in combination with at least one “Z” or “S” shape configured manifold for the heat exchanger apparatus for the input and output of fluid into and out of the heat exchangers of the heat exchanger apparatus. In some embodiments, downstream and/or upstream lines can be connected to the manifolds at a center or off-center point for conveying inlet fluid and outlet fluid. A method of retrofitting a pre-existing plant, building a new plant, or designing a new plant that utilizes an embodiment of the heat exchanger apparatus can help provide an improved heat exchanger arrangement without significantly increasing the footprint needed for the arrangement so that a plant can be improved with an embodiment of the apparatus without requiring an enlarged footprint for the plant.

Heat exchanger apparatus, manifold arrangement for a heat exchanger apparatus, and methods relating to same

A heat exchanger can be configured to utilize multiple sections of hardway fins that can be configured so that an upper first section of the fins can build up liquid head and a second lower section of the fins can be configured to distribute liquid in an even, or uniform, manner. The first section of fins can utilize a different type of hole arrangement than the second section of fins. For instance, the diameter or width of the holes in the first section may differ from the diameter or width of the holes of the second section. In addition (or as an alternative), fin frequency and/or spacing between immediately adjacent holes in the first section of fins may be different from the spacing between immediately adjacent holes in the second section of fins.

Heat exchanger, hardway fin arrangement for a heat exchanger, and methods relating to same

An adsorbent vessel for removing contaminants from a feed gas upstream from a cryogenic distillation process using pressure swing adsorption, temperature swing adsorption, or thermal-pressure swing adsorption. The adsorbent vessel having an adsorbent bed comprised of multiple layers of adsorbent material, including two layers of adsorbent material that selective adsorbs carbon dioxide. Each of the two layers is formed from an adsorbent material having a different capacity for adsorbing carbon dioxide.

Mixed bead layering arrangement for thermal swing adsorption application

An adsorber vessel for the adsorption of gas contaminants from a gaseous stream comprising a vertical wall baffle positioned on an inner surface of an absorber vessel wall, and a bed support positioned below the vertical wall baffle and affixed to the inner surface of the adsorber vessel wall to support an adsorbent material, where the adsorbent material is interned by the bed support, the adsorber vessel wall, and the vertical wall baffle such that at least 90% of the volume created between the vertical wall baffle and the inner surface of the adsorber vessel is free of the adsorbent material.

Vertical baffle in horizontal adsorber vessels

System for restraining the upward motion of granular material in a vessel containing a bed of the granular material through which a fluid flows in an upward direction. The system comprises flexible porous basket within the vessel in contact with the top of the bed of granular material and in contact with the inner walls of the vessel above the bed of granular material, wherein the porous basket has openings which are smaller than the smallest particles of the granular material such that granular material does not pass through the openings. The system also includes a layer of solid bodies located within the flexible porous basket wherein the solid bodies press the flexible porous basket against the top of the bed of granular material and against the inner walls of the cylindrical vessel above the bed of granular material.

Granular bed restraint system

A method for operating a pressure swing adsorption process at turndown conditions by adding selected steps to the normal design operation of the process. The selected steps include the extension of a make product/no feed step and the addition of idle steps at specific points in the process cycle during depressurization and repressurization. The average volumetric flow ratio of the pressurized feed gas to the final product gas during design operation and during turndown operation may be essentially equal. The average oxygen concentration in the final product gas during design operation and during turndown operation also may be essentially equal.

Pressure swing adsorption process operation at turndown conditions

Pressure swing adsorption process and system for separating gas mixtures comprising at least one more strongly adsorbable component and at least one less strongly adsorbable component. The process includes storing gas enriched in one of the components in a first storage tank and a second storage tank. Final product gas is provided from the second storage tank while gas for purge, rinse, and/or repressurization is provided from the first storage tank.

Pressure swing adsorption process and system with dual product storage

Pressure swing adsorption process and system for separating gas mixtures comprising at least one more strongly adsorbable component and at least one less strongly adsorbable component. The process includes storing gas enriched in one of the components in a first storage tank and a second storage tank which are arranged in series. Final product gas is provided from the second storage tank while gas for purge, rinse, and/or repressurization is provided from the first storage tank.

Pressure swing adsorption process and system utilizing two product

An integrated adsorption/cryogenic distillation process is set forth for the separation of an air feed. The air feed is passed through a vacuum swing adsorption (VSA) unit to remove impurities comprising water and carbon dioxide which will freeze out at cryogenic temperatures. The VSA sequence includes an adsorbent regeneration step whereby the impurity-saturated adsorbent is purged under vacuum with a purge gas. The resulting impurity-depleted air feed is fed to a cryogenic distillation column for rectification into a gaseous nitrogen overhead and a liquid oxygen bottoms. A waste stream from the distillation column is expanded, warmed against the impurity-depleted air feed to recover its refrigeration and subsequently recycled as the purge gas to the VSA unit. A key to the present invention is that the waste stream is expanded to the required sub-ambient pressure level in the cryogenic portion of the process. This enables one to recover all of the available refrigeration from the cryogenic waste stream prior to using such waste stream as the purge gas for the adsorption portion of the process.

Integrated adsorption/cryogenic distillation process for the separation

The present invention relates an improvement to a cryogenic process for the separation of air which produces at least a nitrogen product and is carried out in a distillation column system having at least one distillation column from which the nitrogen product is produced. The distillation column of the distillation column system must comprise a rectifying section. In the process of the present invention, air is compressed, freed of impurities which will freeze out at cryogenic temperatures, cooled to near its dew point and fractionated in the distillation column system to produce the nitrogen product. The improvement is the operation of the distillation column such that the ratio of downward liquid to upward vapor flow rate (L/V) is no less than 0.65, preferably greater than 0.75, but less than 1.0 in the rectifying section of a distillation column from which the nitrogen product is produced. The flowrates are in moles per unit time.

Distillation strategies for the production of carbon monoxide-free

The present invention relates to the heat exchanger system in a process for the cryogenic distillation of air. In particular, the present invention is an improvement to the heat exchanger system to increase the operational efficiency of the process.

Consolidated heat exchanger air separation process

The present invention is an improvement to a process for the separation of air into its constituent components in a cryogenic distillation column system having a high pressure column and a low pressure column which are thermally integrated with each other. The improvement for producing both nitrogen and oxygen products at a medium pressure comprises the following steps: (a) operating the low pressure column at a pressure of between 10 to 75 psig and the high pressure column at a pressure which is about 60 to 160 psi higher than the low pressure column; (b) removing and subsequently warming at least a portion of the lower pressure nitrogen overhead from the top of the low pressure column and recovering the warmed, lower pressure nitrogen overhead portion as medium pressure gaseous nitrogen product; and (c) recovering medium pressure gaseous oxygen product from the low pressure column. There are two alternative ways to recover the medium pressure oxygen product of step (c). In the first, a portion of the liquid oxygen bottoms can be removed from the low pressure column and boosted in pressure, and then subsequently vaporized. This vaporized, boosted pressure, liquid oxygen is recovered as medium pressure gaseous oxygen product. In the second, a portion of the vaporized liquid oxygen bottoms is removed from the low pressure column and warmed. This warmed, vaporized liquid oxygen bottoms would be recovered as the medium pressure gaseous oxygen product.

Process to produce oxygen and nitrogen at medium pressure

The present invention relates to a three stage process using copper, copper oxide and molecular sieve adsorbent beds for the sequential removal of oxygen, hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and water from an inert feed gas. The process is especially suited to the purification of nitrogen gas from an air separation plant, which can be purified from a contaminant level of 30 vppm oxygen+carbon monoxide+hydrogen to less than 10 vppb each of oxygen, carbon monoxide, hydrogen, carbon dioxide and water, without the addition of hydrogen or another reducing gas to the process.

Inert gas purifier for bulk nitrogen without the use of hydrogen or

In a process, utilizing high and low pressure distillation columns, for the separation of air to produce low purity oxygen and waste nitrogen streams, feed air from the cold end of the main heat exchangers is used to reboil a low pressure distillation column and to vaporize the low purity oxygen product. This heat duty for column reboil and product vaporization is supplied by splitting the air feed into at least three substreams. One of the substreams is totally condensed and used to provide reflux to both the low pressure and high pressure distillation column, preferably the substream which is fed to the oxygen vaporizer, while a second substream is partially condensed with the vapor portion of the partially condensed substream being fed to the bottom of the high pressure distillation column and the liquid portion providing reflux to the low pressure column. The third substream is expanded to recover refrigeration and then introduced to the low pressure column as column feed. Additionally, the high pressure column condenser is used as an intermediate reboiler in the low pressure column.

Cycle to produce low purity oxygen

In a process for the production of an oxygen-enriched air product, feed air is fed to the main heat exchangers at two pressures. The high pressure feed air from the main exchanger is partially condensed to vaporize the oxygen-enriched air product. This partially condensed feed air is separated with the vapor phase being warmed and expanded to supply refrigeration and subsequently being fed to the low pressure fractionation section, and the liquid phase being used to reflux both the high pressure and low pressure fractionation sections of a double distillation column. The low pressure feed air from the main heat exchangers is fed to the high pressure fractionation section. The high pressure fractionation section condenser is used to provide reboiler duty to the low pressure fractionation section.

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Breinigsville, PA, United States of America

William T Kleinberg