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:
Nov. 25, 2003
Filed:
Oct. 29, 2002
Declan P. O'Connor, Chessington, GB;
Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., Allentown, PA (US);
Abstract
Oxygen-containing gas comprising no more than about mol % oxygen is fed ( ) to an auxiliary separation column ( ) in a multiple column cryogenic air distillation system comprising at least a higher pressure (“HP”) column ( ) and a lower pressure (“LP”) column ( ) for separation into nitrogen-rich overhead vapor and oxygen-rich liquid. Oxygen-rich liquid is fed ( ) from the auxiliary column ( ) to an intermediate location in the LP column ( ). The auxiliary column ( ) is refluxed with a liquid stream from or derived from the HP column ( ). One advantage of the invention is that the diameter of the upper sections (II, III) of the LP column ( ) need no longer be larger than the diameter of the rest of the column system thereby increasing the capacity of the column system (under the constraint of a defined maximum column section diameter).