Robert F Duke

Title: Robert F. Duke: Inventor in Air Separation Technology

Introduction

Robert F. Duke is an inventor associated with Bridgewater, New Jersey, and The BOC Group, Inc. His patent work concerns air separation technology for producing oxygen.

Latest Patents

Duke is credited with 1 patent: “Air Separation Method and Apparatus to Produce an Oxygen Product.” The invention describes a method and apparatus that separate air to produce oxygen. Compressed and purified air enters a bottom reboiler in a distillation column, where it generates boil-up and liquefies into a liquid air stream. After valve expansion, the liquid air is stripped in the column, producing a bottoms stream that can be extracted and vaporized in a main heat exchanger. The process can also pressurize the product stream and use it to liquefy additional compressed air for separation. The column operates near atmospheric pressure, between 1 and 1.3 bar absolute, and refrigeration is introduced by injecting liquid, preferably liquid oxygen, into the column’s bottom region.

Career Highlights

Duke’s listed patent connects his work with industrial gas processing at The BOC Group, Inc. The invention focuses on integrating distillation, heat exchange, and refrigeration to produce an oxygen product.

Collaborations

Joseph Paul Naumovitz and Charles M. Brooks are identified as Duke’s coworkers. The available information does not specify their roles in the patent or whether they collaborated directly on the invention.

Conclusion

Robert F. Duke’s recorded invention addresses oxygen production through a near-atmospheric-pressure air separation process associated with The BOC Group, Inc.