Classifications

• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B01—PHYSICAL OR CHEMICAL PROCESSES OR APPARATUS IN GENERAL
  • B01D—SEPARATION
  • B01D53/00—Separation of gases or vapours; Recovering vapours of volatile solvents from gases; Chemical or biological purification of waste gases, e.g. engine exhaust gases, smoke, fumes, flue gases, aerosols
  • B01D53/22—Separation of gases or vapours; Recovering vapours of volatile solvents from gases; Chemical or biological purification of waste gases, e.g. engine exhaust gases, smoke, fumes, flue gases, aerosols by diffusion
• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C01—INORGANIC CHEMISTRY
  • C01B—NON-METALLIC ELEMENTS; COMPOUNDS THEREOF; METALLOIDS OR COMPOUNDS THEREOF NOT COVERED BY SUBCLASS C01C
  • C01B13/00—Oxygen; Ozone; Oxides or hydroxides in general
  • C01B13/02—Preparation of oxygen
  • C01B13/0229—Purification or separation processes
  • C01B13/0248—Physical processing only
  • C01B13/0251—Physical processing only by making use of membranes
• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F23—COMBUSTION APPARATUS; COMBUSTION PROCESSES
  • F23L—SUPPLYING AIR OR NON-COMBUSTIBLE LIQUIDS OR GASES TO COMBUSTION APPARATUS IN GENERAL ; VALVES OR DAMPERS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR CONTROLLING AIR SUPPLY OR DRAUGHT IN COMBUSTION APPARATUS; INDUCING DRAUGHT IN COMBUSTION APPARATUS; TOPS FOR CHIMNEYS OR VENTILATING SHAFTS; TERMINALS FOR FLUES
  • F23L7/00—Supplying non-combustible liquids or gases, other than air, to the fire, e.g. oxygen, steam
  • F23L7/007—Supplying oxygen or oxygen-enriched air
• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C01—INORGANIC CHEMISTRY
  • C01B—NON-METALLIC ELEMENTS; COMPOUNDS THEREOF; METALLOIDS OR COMPOUNDS THEREOF NOT COVERED BY SUBCLASS C01C
  • C01B2210/00—Purification or separation of specific gases
  • C01B2210/0043—Impurity removed
  • C01B2210/0046—Nitrogen
• • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
  • Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
  • Y02E—REDUCTION OF GREENHOUSE GAS [GHG] EMISSIONS, RELATED TO ENERGY GENERATION, TRANSMISSION OR DISTRIBUTION
  • Y02E20/00—Combustion technologies with mitigation potential
  • Y02E20/34—Indirect CO2mitigation, i.e. by acting on non CO2directly related matters of the process, e.g. pre-heating or heat recovery

Definitions

• compressed air at a pressure generally between 7 and 10 bars, is generally used not for its chemical composition but for its pressure in “volumetric” applications (engine air, instrument air, sweep air, ...), the advantage of this fluid residing in its flexibility of use and action and the fact that it presents no danger to the user or to the environment.
• Apparatus for supplying air gas by air separation also uses compressed air, but exclusively for its transformation into gas (s) separated from air.
• Document FR-A- 2 774 308 in the name of the applicant, describes a flexible coupled system for supplying compressed air, on the one hand, and air gases, on the other hand, by sharing the if necessary, the compressors of an air compression battery.
• the object of the present invention is to propose a method for the joint supply of at least two compressed air flows, one of which is moderately or slightly enriched in oxygen for supply to a user station exploiting the superoxidizing nature of this flow, and compressed air slightly depleted in oxygen for all “conventional” mechanical uses of compressed air.
• a part of the compressed air flow is passed through a gas separation unit from the air to provide a first flow depleted in oxygen, therefore having an oxygen content of less than 21%, typically between 17 and 20% by volume, sent to a first user station, and a second stream having an oxygen content not exceeding 50%, sent to a second user station.
• the slight oxygen enrichment of the second stream allows, in certain processes, such as the combustion or treatment of waste water, to economically compensate for the additional costs associated with the implementation of the gas separation unit and any recompression of the outgoing flows.
• the single figure schematically represents an installation for implementing the method according to the invention.
• a primary flow of air compressed in a conventional compression unit 1 at a pressure not exceeding 10 bar, dried and cooled, then sent to a pressure conventionally of approximately 7- 8 bar, via a line 2, to an air gas separation unit 3 and, via a line 11, to at least one user station (not shown) of "standard" compressed air.
• the separation unit 3 is of the permeation type on polymer membranes such as those sold by the company MEDAL Corp., of the AIR LIQUIDE Group, the unit 3 having an outlet 4 of moderately enriched permeate in oxygen and an outlet 5 of oxygen-depleted non-permeate.
• the output 5 communicates with one or more user lines 6i, 6 2 .
• the outlet 4 communicates with a supply line 7 for at least one user station 8 exploiting the oxidizing nature of the air, typically a combustion or aeration / oxidation unit for sludges or effluents.
• the oxygen-enriched gas at the outlet 4 is combined in a mixer 9 with an unseparated compressed air flow 10 derived from the outlet of the compression unit 1 to supply in the line 7 very little enriched compressed air. in oxygen, less than 5% O 2 (typically of the order of 1 to 2%), sufficient to significantly improve the performance of user station 8.
• the separation unit 3 is used to produce at its outlet 5 a flow of compressed air very slightly depleted in oxygen, with an oxygen content between 17 and 20% by volume, typically between 18 and 19%, at the cost of a very slight pressure drop (between 0.2 and 0.5 bar), usable in complete safety in the same way as “standard” compressed air in the line 11.
• a flow of oxygen-enriched air between 40 and 50% by volume is advantageously combined with a pressure of a few hundred millibars, advantageously combined with a stream of standard compressed air (10 ) to avoid, in line 7 and downstream, the use of “oxygen compatible” equipment.
• the mixer 9 comprises an ejector exploiting the flow 10 of compressed air to extract the permeate at the outlet 4 under a slight vacuum before mixing it with the engine air of the flow 10 to dilute it.
• the inventor determined that by enriching, for example, by 1% in oxygen the air in line 7 supplying a burner operating on natural gas, a fuel saving between 5 and 10% could be obtained, depending on the share of the transfer of heat produced by exchange on the fumes and the part produced by flame radiation.
• the cost of equivalent “pure” oxygen contained in the permeate at outlet 4 represents approximately 0.023 € / m 3 , so that, for a cost of natural gas of approximately 0.15 € / m 3 , enrichment of 1% of flow 7 saves between 0.005 and 0.012 € / m 3 of natural gas used.

Landscapes

• Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Analytical Chemistry (AREA)
• Organic Chemistry (AREA)
• Inorganic Chemistry (AREA)
• General Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
• Oil, Petroleum & Natural Gas (AREA)
• Chemical Kinetics & Catalysis (AREA)
• Combustion & Propulsion (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Separation Using Semi-Permeable Membranes (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (3)

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• 2002
  • 2002-04-26 FR FR0205292A patent/FR2838982B1/fr not_active Expired - Fee Related
• 2003
  • 2003-04-17 EP EP03740639A patent/EP1501621A1/de not_active Withdrawn
  • 2003-04-17 AU AU2003262798A patent/AU2003262798A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2003-04-17 WO PCT/FR2003/001244 patent/WO2003090904A1/fr not_active Ceased

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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