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:
May. 28, 2013
Filed:
Mar. 26, 2009
Neil Mark Prosser, Lockport, NY (US);
Wei Zhang, Burlington, CA;
Neil Mark Prosser, Lockport, NY (US);
Wei Zhang, Burlington, CA;
Praxair Technology, Inc., Danbury, CT (US);
Abstract
The present invention provides a method of rectifying an oxygen, nitrogen and argon containing feed stream that employs high and low pressure columns and an argon column. Refrigeration is imparted through turboexpansion of a nitrogen-rich vapor stream withdrawn from the high pressure column. The nitrogen-rich vapor stream has a sufficiently high flow rate that the flow of both vapor and liquid within the low pressure column is decreased to such an extent that the diameter of the low pressure column can be made substantially equal to or less than that of the high pressure column. The use of the argon column allows recovery of the oxygen to be increased over that which would otherwise be obtained given the draw of the nitrogen-rich vapor. The argon column can be an argon rejection column in which the separated argon is discarded as waste.