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:
Sep. 23, 2003
Filed:
Mar. 29, 2002
David S. Seiver, Houston, TX (US);
Ovidiu Marin, Lisle, IL (US);
Other;
Abstract
An air separation unit including an air intake, a high pressure cryogenic distillation column receiving air from the air intake and producing an oxygen rich liquid reflux, and a low-pressure cryogenic distillation column. An adaptive controller controls the flow rate of the oxygen-rich liquid from the first distillation column into the second distillation column, wherein during plant upsets, the adaptive controller maintains the level of oxygen-rich liquid in the first distillation column at a substantially constant level by adjusting a flow rate of the oxygen rich liquid into the second distillation column, and wherein the argon content of the argon-rich output stream from the second distillation column remains substantially constant.