Coarse neon and helium extraction device and method suitable for nitrogen-air separation under pumped pressure
Technical Field
The invention relates to a crude neon and helium extraction device and an extraction method thereof, in particular to a crude neon and helium extraction device and an extraction method thereof suitable for nitrogen extraction and air separation, and belongs to the field of rectification air separation.
Background
Compared with oxygen and nitrogen, the rare gas has higher value, and is mainly extracted by an air separation device for cryogenic separation, the quantity of the existing air separation device is large in China, but the rare gas extraction needs to be further improved, and the rare gas extraction device is added. Neon helium has low boiling point, is greatly enriched at the top of a lower column of the air separation system, and for the air separation system with large pressure nitrogen product amount extracted from the lower column, a large amount of neon helium components are extracted along with the pressure nitrogen product, and if the existing crude neon helium extraction mode is adopted, the extraction rate of the crude neon helium after modification is low, so that the economic benefit is reduced.
Chinese patent CN104990366A discloses a process for extracting a crude neon helium product from liquid nitrogen in an air separation plant, as shown in fig. 1: liquid nitrogen from the lower aerial separation tower enters a crude neon helium tower 101 through a liquid nitrogen pipeline 102, crude neon helium is obtained in a crude neon helium pipeline 103 at the top of the crude neon helium tower 101, liquid nitrogen is obtained at the bottom of the crude neon helium tower, and the liquid nitrogen is divided into two paths after being supercooled: one strand of throttled nitrogen is used as a cold source of the coarse neon helium tower condenser through an auxiliary pipeline 104, and a nitrogen pipe is removed through a main pipe 105 after heat exchange; the other stream is fed to the top of the upper column via secondary conduit 104. The crude neon tower evaporator takes low-pressure air as a heat source, and liquid air after heat exchange throttles to flow into an upper tower.
The method for extracting the crude neon helium product from the air separation liquid nitrogen has the following problems: the method only extracts neon and helium from liquid nitrogen, the extraction rate of neon and helium in liquid nitrogen is more than 80%, the neon and helium component in pressure nitrogen is not extracted, and for air separation with the ratio of the production of pressure nitrogen to the production of oxygen in air separation being 1:2, the neon and helium content in pressure nitrogen accounts for about 40% of the neon and helium content in the total raw material air, the neon and helium are not extracted, and the total extraction rate of neon and helium does not exceed 60%. Therefore, the market urgently needs an extraction device and an extraction method which can solve the problem of low extraction rate of neon and helium in air separation with large amount of pressure nitrogen products and can ensure the yield and purity requirements of pressure nitrogen products of users.
Disclosure of Invention
In order to solve the problems in the prior art, the invention provides the coarse neon and helium extraction device which has the technical characteristics of simple structure, convenient and reliable use and the like and is suitable for nitrogen extraction and air separation.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an economically advantageous extraction method for a crude neon helium extraction apparatus suitable for use in vacuum nitrogen air separation, which can ensure extraction efficiency of neon helium, and does not affect pressure, yield and purity of pressure nitrogen.
In order to achieve the purpose, the invention is realized by the following technical scheme:
a crude neon helium extraction device suitable for nitrogen-air separation under pressure comprises an air separation tower, a lean neon helium tower and a crude neon helium tower, the air separation tower comprises a lower tower with liquid nitrogen and an upper tower with liquid oxygen, a condensing evaporator is connected between the upper tower and the lower tower, a circulating pipeline is connected between the lower end close to the top of the lean neon-helium tower and the bottom of the upper tower, a liquid nitrogen pipeline and a pressure nitrogen pipeline are connected between the top of the lower tower and the middle of the lean neon helium tower, a liquid air pipeline is connected between the bottom of the lean neon helium tower and the middle of the lower tower, a lean neon helium pipeline is connected between the upper end close to the bottom of the coarse neon helium tower and the top of the lean neon helium tower, a pressure nitrogen product gas outlet is arranged at the upper end close to the bottom of the lean neon helium tower, the bottom of the lean neon helium tower is provided with a main pipeline which is communicated with the top of the coarse neon helium tower, and the top of the coarse neon helium tower is also provided with a coarse neon helium gas collecting port.
As an improvement, the bottom of the coarse neon-helium tower and the middle of the lean neon-helium tower are connected with a liquid nitrogen pipeline A.
As an improvement, the tower further comprises an auxiliary pipeline, wherein one end of the auxiliary pipeline is communicated with the main pipeline, and the other end of the auxiliary pipeline is communicated with the upper tower.
As an improvement, the circulating pipeline, the liquid nitrogen pipeline, the pressure nitrogen pipeline, the lean neon helium pipeline and the main pipeline are all provided with throttle control valves.
An extraction method of a coarse neon and helium extraction device suitable for nitrogen extraction and air separation under vacuum pressure comprises the following steps:
step 1): liquid oxygen at the bottom of the upper tower is conveyed to the top of the lean neon and helium tower through an inlet end of a circulating pipeline to be used as a cold source of the lean neon and helium tower condenser;
step 2): introducing liquid nitrogen and pressure nitrogen with neon and helium components at the top of the lower tower into the lean neon and helium tower, wherein the neon and helium components are enriched towards the top of the lean neon and helium tower along with the pressure nitrogen, the pressure nitrogen exchanges heat with liquid oxygen at the top of the lean neon and helium tower to be condensed to form a bottom descending liquid of the lean neon and helium tower, and oxygen after heat exchange flows back to the bottom of the upper tower through an output end of a circulating pipeline;
step 3): feeding the uncondensed lean neon and helium components into a crude neon and helium tower from the top of the lean neon and helium tower through a lean neon and helium pipeline for rectification to obtain crude neon and helium at the top of the crude neon and helium tower and liquid nitrogen at the bottom of the crude neon and helium tower;
step 4): obtaining pressure nitrogen product gas at the upper end near the bottom of the lean neon helium tower through rectification of the lean neon helium tower, outputting and collecting through a pressure nitrogen product gas outlet, obtaining liquid nitrogen at the bottom of the lean neon helium tower, and dividing the liquid nitrogen into two paths: the first path is delivered into a crude neon helium tower through a main pipeline after throttling and pressure control so as to be used as a cold source of a crude neon helium tower condenser during rectification of the crude neon helium tower, and the second path is delivered into an upper tower after liquid nitrogen is subcooled through a secondary pipeline;
step 5): sending external low-pressure air into an evaporator at the lower part of the lean neon-helium tower to be used as a heat source, and sending liquid air into the lower tower through a night sky pipeline after heat exchange;
step 6): and feeding the liquid nitrogen obtained from the bottom of the coarse neon-helium tower back to the lean neon-helium tower through a liquid nitrogen pipeline for rectification, and circulating the liquid nitrogen to improve the extraction rate of the total neon and helium.
Has the advantages that: the method fully extracts neon and helium components in liquid nitrogen and pressure nitrogen, and the total extraction rate of neon and helium in air separation is up to more than 90%; the lean neon helium tower condenser takes liquid oxygen as a cold source, and the temperature difference between the liquid oxygen and the top of the lean neon helium tower is stable; the heat load of the main cooling is shared, according to a heat exchange formula Q ═ kA Δ t, the heat exchange area of the main cooling is increased, the temperature difference of the main cooling is reduced, and the pressure of the lower tower is reduced, so that the pressure discharge of an air compressor is reduced, and the energy consumption of air separation is reduced; the pressure nitrogen product is extracted from the bottom of the lean neon helium tower, so that the neon helium extraction rate is ensured, the pressure, yield and purity of the pressure nitrogen are not influenced, the economic benefit is improved, and the gas using requirement of a user is met; simple structure, convenient operation, suitable volume production.
Drawings
FIG. 1 is a schematic flow diagram of a prior art process for extracting a crude neon helium product.
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a process for extracting crude neon and helium in the present invention.
Detailed Description
The present invention will be further described with reference to the drawings attached to the specification, but the present invention is not limited to the following examples.
As shown in fig. 2, a concrete embodiment of a crude neon helium extraction apparatus suitable for nitrogen-air separation under pressure of the present invention, which comprises an air separation column 1, a lean neon helium column 2, and a crude neon helium column 3, wherein the air separation column 1 comprises a lower column 4 containing liquid nitrogen and an upper column 5 containing liquid oxygen, a condensing evaporator 6 is connected between the upper column 5 and the lower column 4, a circulation pipe 7 is connected between the lower end near the top of the lean neon helium column 2 and the bottom of the upper column 5, the liquid oxygen at the bottom of the upper column 5 is delivered to the top of the lean neon helium column 2 through the inlet end of the circulation pipe 7 as a cold source of a condenser of the lean neon helium column 2, a liquid nitrogen pipe 8 and a pressure nitrogen pipe 9 are connected between the top of the lower column 4 and the middle of the lean neon helium column 2, the liquid nitrogen and the pressure nitrogen with helium in the top of the lower column 4 are introduced into the lean neon column 2 through the liquid nitrogen pipe 8 and the pressure nitrogen pipe 9, the neon helium component is enriched towards the top of the lean neon helium tower along with pressure nitrogen, the pressure nitrogen and liquid oxygen at the top of the lean neon helium tower 2 are subjected to heat exchange and condensation to form a bottom descending liquid of the lean neon helium tower, oxygen after heat exchange flows back to the bottom of an upper tower 5 through an output end of a circulating pipeline 7, a lean neon helium pipeline 10 is connected between the upper end close to the bottom of a crude neon helium tower 3 and the top of the lean neon helium tower 2, the uncondensed lean neon helium component is sent into the crude neon helium tower 3 from the top of the lean neon helium tower 2 through the lean neon helium pipeline 10 to be rectified, crude helium is obtained at the top of the crude neon helium tower 3, liquid nitrogen is obtained at the bottom of the crude neon tower 3, a liquid air pipeline 14 is connected between the bottom of the lean neon helium tower 2 and the middle part of a lower tower 4, low-pressure air outside is sent into an evaporator at the lower part of the lean neon helium tower to be used as a heat source, liquid air is sent into the lower tower 4 through the liquid, the pressure nitrogen product gas obtained through rectification of the lean neon helium tower 2 is output and collected through a pressure nitrogen product gas outlet, a main pipeline 12 is arranged at the bottom of the lean neon helium tower 2, the main pipeline 12 is communicated with the top of the coarse neon helium tower 3, liquid nitrogen is obtained at the bottom of the lean neon helium tower 2, and the liquid nitrogen is throttled and controlled and then conveyed into the coarse neon helium tower 3 through the main pipeline 12 to be used as a cold source of the coarse neon helium tower condenser during rectification of the coarse neon helium tower 3, and a coarse neon helium gas collecting port is further arranged at the top of the coarse neon helium tower 3 and used for collecting coarse neon helium gas.
As an embodiment of the improved machine, the bottom of the coarse neon-helium tower 3 and the middle part of the lean neon-helium tower 2 are connected with a liquid nitrogen pipeline A11, liquid nitrogen obtained from the bottom of the coarse neon-helium tower 3 is sent back to the lean neon-helium tower through a liquid nitrogen pipeline A11 for rectification, and liquid nitrogen is recycled, so that the extraction rate of the total neon and helium is improved.
As an embodiment of the machine, the machine also comprises a secondary pipeline 13, one end of the secondary pipeline 13 is communicated with the main pipeline 12, the other end of the secondary pipeline is communicated with the upper tower 5, liquid nitrogen is circulated, and the extraction rate of total neon and helium is improved.
As an embodiment of the machine changing, the circulating pipeline 7, the liquid nitrogen pipeline 8, the pressure nitrogen pipeline 9, the lean neon helium pipeline 10 and the main pipeline 12 are all provided with the throttle control valve 15, the flow control of each pipeline is realized through the throttle control valve 15, the operation and extraction are convenient, and the throttle control valve 15 is preferably an electromagnetic valve controlled by an intelligent system.
Fig. 1 shows a specific embodiment of the extraction method of a crude neon helium extraction device suitable for nitrogen-pumped air separation, which takes 50000Nm3/h air separation as an example and the nitrogen pressure extraction amount 25000Nm3/h as an example, and the extraction method of the crude neon helium extraction device suitable for nitrogen-pumped air separation comprises the following steps:
step 1): liquid oxygen at the bottom of the upper tower 5 is conveyed to the top of the lean neon-helium tower 2 through the inlet end of the circulating pipeline 7 to be used as a cold source of a lean neon-helium tower 2 condenser, the temperature of the top of the lean neon-helium tower 2 is 95.3K, the liquid oxygen temperature is 92.6K, the temperature difference is 2.7K, the heat exchange is stable, the load of the lean neon-helium tower 2 condenser is controlled to be 2150kW, which is 1/4 which accounts for the total load of the main cooling, namely the main cooling area is increased by 0.25 times, the temperature difference of the main cooling is reduced by 0.25 times, the exhaust pressure of an air compressor is reduced by 0.15 ata;
step 2): introducing liquid nitrogen and pressure nitrogen with neon and helium components in the top of the lower tower 4 into the lean neon and helium tower 2 (the neon and helium components are about 90ppm), enriching the neon and helium components towards the top of the lean neon and helium tower 2 along with the pressure nitrogen, exchanging heat between the pressure nitrogen and liquid oxygen at the top of the lean neon and helium tower 2 to condense to form a lean neon and helium tower descending liquid, and returning oxygen to the bottom of the upper tower 5 through the output end of the circulating pipeline 7 after heat exchange;
step 3): feeding the uncondensed lean neon helium component (about 5600ppm of neon helium component) into a crude neon helium tower 3 from the top of a lean neon helium tower 2 through a lean neon helium pipeline 10 for rectification, so as to obtain crude neon helium at the top of the crude neon helium tower 3, wherein the neon helium component is about 55 percent, the total extraction rate of neon helium is more than 90 percent, and liquid nitrogen is obtained at the bottom of the crude neon helium tower 3;
step 4): rectifying by a lean neon helium tower 2 to obtain pressure nitrogen product gas at the upper end close to the bottom of the lean neon helium tower 2, outputting and collecting by a pressure nitrogen product gas outlet, wherein the pressure nitrogen product gas is 25000Nm3/h, the nitrogen purity is 99.995%, obtaining liquid nitrogen at the bottom of the lean neon helium tower 2, and dividing the liquid nitrogen into two paths: the first path is delivered into a crude neon helium tower 3 through a main pipeline 12 after throttling and pressure control so as to be used as a cold source of a crude neon helium tower 3 condenser during rectification of the crude neon helium tower 3, and the second path is sent into an upper tower after liquid nitrogen is subcooled through an auxiliary pipeline 13;
step 5): sending external low-pressure air into an evaporator at the lower part of the lean neon-helium tower 2 to be used as a heat source, and sending liquid air into the lower tower 4 through a night sky pipeline 14 after heat exchange, wherein the temperature of the low-pressure air is 101K, the temperature of nitrogen at the bottom of the lean neon-helium tower 2 is 95.4K, and the temperature difference is 5.6K;
step 6): the liquid nitrogen obtained from the bottom of the crude neon-helium column 3 is sent back to the lean neon-helium column 2 through a liquid nitrogen pipeline A11 for rectification, and the liquid nitrogen is recycled to improve the extraction rate of the total neon and helium.
Finally, it should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and many variations are possible. All modifications which can be derived or suggested by a person skilled in the art from the disclosure of the present invention are to be considered within the scope of the invention.