Air separation

Abstract

An improved process and apparatus for separating air to form oxygen and nitrogen in at least one cryogenic distillation column is disclosed. Nitrogen vapor taken from the colunm is warmed in countercurrent flow to incoming air in a heat exchanger wherein compressed air is being cooled for separation. A portion of the warm nitrogen is compressed, cooled in the heat exchanger and passed through an expansion turbine. The expanded nitrogen is passed through a reboiler associated with the column and further cooled in the heat exchange means. Part of the resulting liquid nitrogen is used to provide reflux for the column and the remainder is taken as product. Preferably, at least a portion of the compressed air stream is expanded in a turbine, passed through the reboiler associated with the column to provide reboil therefor, liquified by heat exchange and introduced to the distillation column through a throttling valve. Further, an argon product can be recovered by withdrawing an argon-rich stream from a distillation column and passing it to a further column for purification. Vapor from the distillation column, or another in a plurality of distillation columns, is used to provide reflux for the further column with the resulting condensed vapor being returned to the column from which it was withdrawn.