The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 03, 2000
Filed:
Jan. 21, 1998
Zbigniew Tadeusz Fidkowski, Macungie, PA (US);
Donn Michael Herron, Fogelsville, PA (US);
Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., Allentown, PA (US);
Abstract
The present invention relates to an elevated pressure air separation cryogenic process wherein feed air is compressed, treated to remove water and carbon dioxide, cooled to cryogenic temperature in a main heat exchanger having a cold end and a warm end and fed to a distillation column system having at least two (2) distillation columns for separation into at least a nitrogen-enriched product, an oxygen-enriched product and a gaseous waste stream characterized in that at least a portion of said waste stream is (isentropically) expanded to produce work and work produced by the expansion is used to provide at least a portion of the work required to compress a process stream other than the gaseous waste stream at a temperature warmer than the temperature of the cold end of said main heat exchanger. The alternative process streams to be compressed can be: at least a portion of the feed air, at least a portion of the oxygen-enriched product or at least a portion of the nitrogen-enriched product.