EP2657633A1 - Tubing module for air separation unit - Google Patents

Abstract

The tubing module (10) has two main compressor side connections, which are coupled to the two fluid lines in the heating portion of the air separation system. Two main heat exchanger side terminals (10a,10b) are connected to the two fluid connections (10a',10b') of the main heat exchanger (1a,1b). The two fluid lines connect the two main compressor side connections and the two main heat exchanger side connections. A fluid distributor (12) is provided for connecting the fluid connections of the main heat exchanger to the common fluid line in the warm portion of the air separation system. An independent claim is included for a method for producing an air separation system.

Description

The invention relates to a casing module for at least one main heat exchanger of an air separation plant, an air separation plant with such a casing module and a method for producing an air separation plant.

State of the art

Atmospheric air is a gas mixture consisting essentially of nitrogen (78%), oxygen (21%) and argon (0.9%). The remaining 0.1% comprise mainly carbon dioxide and, as further components, the noble gases neon, helium, krypton and xenon.

Facilities for rectificatory air separation (hereinafter referred to as "air separation plants") are known. They are used for the production of gaseous oxygen and nitrogen and possibly of liquid oxygen, liquid nitrogen and the said noble gases. The air separation includes as essential steps the compression, precooling, purification, cooling and rectification.

The compression takes place, for example, in multi-stage turbocompressors with intermediate and after-cooling to a pressure of about 6 bar or more. Before compaction dust particles can be removed in so-called intensive filters.

For subsequent pre-cooling can be used with water-operated direct contact cooler, in which also a partial leaching of water-soluble impurities can be done. The water used can, for example, be recooled in trickle evaporation coolers against nitrogen residual gas from the rectification (also referred to below as "cooling nitrogen").

The purification of the precooled air is usually carried out in molecular sieve adsorbers. In these, moisture, carbon dioxide and hydrocarbons are removed.

For liquefaction, the thus purified air is cooled in one or more main heat exchangers to about -175 ° C. The cooling takes place by internal heat exchange in countercurrent to cold gas streams generated in the system. Again, i.d.R. at least nitrogen residual gas from the rectification used. In a subsequent expansion, the air continues to cool by the Joule-Thomson effect and liquefies.

The actual decomposition (rectification) of the air takes place in separation columns (rectification columns) of a separation column system, wherein first an oxygen-rich bottom fraction and a nitrogen-rich top fraction are produced. Depending on the required purity of the end products and / or the gases to be generated, different column configurations can be used for the separation column system. For example, two separation columns in the form of so-called medium-pressure and low-pressure columns can be used as double columns. Noble gases such as argon and / or neon can be generated by downstream separation columns and process steps. The rectification can also include, for example, the liquefaction of pure nitrogen against evaporating oxygen and its return to the separation column system. Corresponding systems may also include other devices such as e.g. Complementary or final compressor, expansion turbines, high-pressure heat exchanger, internal compression pumps and / or liquid separator have.

Air separation plants are thus made up of a so-called warm part, which contains the components for compression, precooling and purification, and a so-called cold part with the main heat exchanger (s) and possibly other heat exchangers, for example a supercooling countercurrent, and the separation column system. The components in the cold part can be arranged in one or more so-called cold boxes. These are clad steel frames filled with insulating material such as perlite to reduce heat input from the environment. Ideally, the inside of a coldbox is maintenance-free. Maintenance-requiring components can be isolated for this purpose from the insulating material and arranged accessible from the outside. Valves can be led to the outside, so that, for example, their drives are accessible. Ingress of moisture can be prevented by flushing with nitrogen.

Depending on the size of the system, several components can be integrated in a common coldbox. In smaller systems, for example, the main heat exchanger or the separation column system are combined in a cold box, in larger systems these are distributed over several cold boxes. Large systems may also include several main heat exchangers housed in separate cold boxes. Other cold boxes, for example, several column boxes and / or so-called argon boxes (in plants for argon production) can be provided.

Gaseous oxygen and nitrogen produced in an air separation plant can be fed into a pipeline network and sent directly to the consumer. For example, oxygen, nitrogen and argon in liquid form are temporarily stored in storage tanks and transported to tank trucks.

Corresponding air separation plants should preferably be present at the place of use for the respective gases, e.g. in the vicinity of refineries or oil reservoirs, in order to keep the transport routes for the said fluids as short as possible.

The installation of air separation plants takes place i.d.R. from prefabricated components. However, this is often problematic because sufficient qualified personnel for assembly is either unavailable or expensive. In particular, this relates to the connection of the main heat exchanger. Therefore, there is a need for improvements that allow more reliable and easier construction of air separation plants.

Disclosure of the invention

Against this background, the present invention proposes a casing module for at least one main heat exchanger of an air separation plant, an air separation plant with such a casing module and a method for producing an air separation plant with the features of the independent claims. Preferred embodiments are the subject of the dependent claims and the following description.

Advantages of the invention

The invention proposes a casing module by means of which at least two fluid connections of at least one main heat exchanger designed for use in an air separation plant can be connected to at least two fluid lines in a warm part of the air separation plant. The casing module has at least two main compressor side ports connectable to the at least two fluid conduits in the warm part of the air separation plant and at least two main heat exchanger side ports coupleable to the at least two fluid ports of the at least one main heat exchanger and at least two of the at least two main compressor side ports and the at least two main heat exchanger side ports connecting fluid lines.

The casing module proposed according to the invention makes it possible to replace the so-called header piping which is usually required for the main heat exchangers in air separation plants. The header piping is usually used to connect the main heat exchanger or to the explained warm part of the system and is arranged on top of the main heat exchanger or the.

The main heat exchanger (s) of an air separation plant serve at least for cooling the feed air intended for decomposition in the separation columns of the air separation plant in countercurrent to at least one air product produced from the feed air. The main heat exchanger (s) are thus arranged for cooling air in indirect heat exchange with return streams from the separation column system and have correspondingly equipped means which comprise, for example, suitably designed lines.

Air separation plants can also be designed for so-called internal compression, in which one or more separation columns are taken off a liquid stream, brought to liquid pressure and vaporized in the main heat exchanger (s) against a heat transfer medium, usually a compressed air stream, to a gaseous product. If a corresponding liquid stream is present at supercritical pressure, no evaporation takes place, but a pseudo-vaporization. The one for the Evaporation or pseudo-evaporation used heat transfer medium, so for example a corresponding compressed air flow is compressed for thermodynamic reasons to a pressure which is usually well above a pressure which is used in the separation column system as the operating pressure. It is liquefied in the main heat exchanger or heat exchangers (or possibly pseudo-liquefied if supercritical pressure prevails). Main heat exchangers are thus also used to provide a corresponding gaseous print product.

Several main heat exchangers are used in particular for reasons of space or constructive considerations, for example, when the required for an air separation plant main heat exchanger can not be arranged in a single cold box and / or a production and / or transport otherwise constitute an insurmountable effort.

The main heat exchanger (s) of an air separation plant may each be formed from one or more main heat exchanger blocks or main heat exchanger sections connected in parallel and / or in series, for example from one or more plate heat exchanger blocks.

If the following is the speech that several main heat exchangers are provided, including several separate units understood, but in each case basically fulfill the same functions. For example, all main heat exchangers are traversed by the same number of fluid conduits and cool or heat them to substantially the same temperatures. It is therefore a matter of several units that can be connected in parallel and thus fulfill the function of a larger main heat exchanger.

If, in the following, however, reference is made to a plurality of main heat exchanger blocks, these are to be understood as meaning a plurality of separate units which, however, fulfill different functions. For example, these may be a plurality of mutually separate plate heat exchanger blocks, each of which can be flowed through by different fluids. For example, for the illustrated internal compression, the heat transfer medium to be liquefied (or pseudo-liquefied) and the internally compressed stream (or streams) to be vaporized (or pseudo-evaporated) in a separate plate heat exchanger block in the indirect Heat exchange are conducted against each other. For the remaining streams to be cooled and heated, separate plate heat exchanger blocks may be used, which must be designed for lower pressures. Several main heat exchanger blocks together fulfill the function of a main heat exchanger. A plurality of main heat exchangers may each have an identical set of main heat exchanger blocks. The individual main heat exchanger blocks can be arranged in different cold boxes.

The main heat exchanger (s) (possibly with their separate main heat exchanger blocks) are themselves part of the so-called cold part of an air separation plant explained in the introduction, but designed for connection to their warm part. In any case, the main heat exchanger (s) are fundamentally different from the heat exchangers or coolers (for example an aftercooler of one or more compressors) arranged in the warm part of the air separation plant in that at least one fluid cooled to cryogenic temperatures is supplied to and / or removed from them. A cryogenic temperature is for example below -50 ° C, in particular below -100 ° C before. The main heat exchanger (s) are therefore adapted to operate at correspondingly low temperatures, for example by having materials which are stable at or produced by the cryogenic temperatures. They are thus structurally, manufacturing and functional at least for cooling the intended for decomposition in the separation columns of the air separation plant feed air countercurrent to at least one air product produced from the feed set.

Upstream of or the main heat exchanger, ie in the warm part of the system, however, usually only heat exchangers or coolers are used, which are fed or removed higher-temperature fluids. These usually have a temperature of at least 0 ° C. Thus, the compressed air in a main compressor is usually cooled by means of at least one cooler, such as a water cooler, to dissipate the heat of compression. However, the cooling takes place completely at temperatures above 0 ° C., ie not at cryogenic temperatures and / or not in countercurrent to at least one air product produced from the feed air.

In the context of the present application, the main compressor is the compressor or the compressor arrangement, which is driven as a single machine with external energy and, for example, as a single-stage or multi-stage compressor whose stages are all connected to the same drive. All stages can be housed in a housing or connected to a gearbox. Reciprocators are often not among the driven by external energy machines because they are driven by each associated relaxation machines. The "warm part" of the air separation plant to whose connection to the main heat exchanger or the casing module according to the invention is used, comprises as a central component of this main heat exchanger, but can other facilities such as booster and / or Aufreinigungseinrichtungen and / or product compressor (for the external compression of air products) include.

The preparation of the header piping proves to be particularly complicated if, for an air separation plant, a plurality of main heat exchangers and / or a main heat exchanger are provided with a plurality of main heat exchanger blocks, as explained above. In this case, the pipelines on respective main heat exchangers and / or main heat exchanger blocks or their enclosing cold boxes must be merged at the site of the air separation plant, each to establish a connection to common fluid lines. A prefabrication of the header piping per se is difficult, since the tolerances are often too large in practice. In other words, for example, a main heat exchanger and / or main heat exchanger block can hardly be created in the precision that allows a direct adaptation of one or more prefabricated header lines. The directly into the main heat exchanger and / or main heat exchanger blocks pipes, corresponding collector and the transfer lines for connecting other components, such as the upstream compression and cleaning devices as explained above, must therefore be made very expensive on the site.

In contrast, the invention proposes to move the said pipes from the roof of the main heat exchanger and / or main heat exchanger blocks or the corresponding cold boxes into the casing module in the form of a so-called piping skid. The casing module can be arranged vertically next to the main heat exchanger (s) and / or main heat exchanger blocks. At the Then only the connection connections between the main heat exchanger (s) and / or main heat exchanger blocks and the casing module have to be made in order to establish a connection with the respective fluid lines. This usually proves to be uncritical in comparison to the previously described individual production.

The casing module provided according to the invention is characterized by the fact that it has predominantly, in particular exclusively, lines (fluid lines) designed for the forwarding of fluids. A casing module is formed with main compressor side connections for connection to a warm part of the air separation plant and with main heat exchanger side connections for connection to the cold part, more precisely to the main heat exchanger and / or main heat exchanger blocks or their connections.

For this purpose, a casing module has, for example, n main compressor side connections and n x m main heat exchanger side connections, where m is the number of main heat exchangers respectively connectable to the casing module and, for example, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 or 10. The main compressor side ports and the main heat exchanger side ports are connected to each other via the fluid lines. If n> 1, in each case a plurality of main heat exchanger-side connections can be connected via a fluid distributor to a main compressor-side connection. A casing module optionally comprises shut-off means for shutting off individual fluid lines and / or adjusting means for adjusting a fluid flow, in particular for evenly distributing fluid of a main compressor side connection to main heat exchanger side connections, but not active pressure and / or temperature-influencing means, ie compressors, expansion valves or Relaxation machines, heaters, coolers, heat exchangers and the like.

A casing module according to the invention is thus structurally designed such that one, in particular one, each leaves the fluid flow guided through the casing module at an outlet pressure and / or an outlet temperature which substantially corresponds to the inlet pressure or inlet temperature.

A fluid flow, which is fed to the casing module either via a main compressor side port and via a main heat exchanger side port (or m main heat exchanger side ports), or vice versa, has substantially the same pressure and temperature at discharge as at the feed. A "substantially" equal pressure and a "substantially" the same temperature may, for example, minor pressure increases or pressure losses and / or slight increases in temperature or temperature decreases, for example, less than 1 bar, 0.5 bar or 0.1 bar or less than 10 ° C, 5 ° C or 1 ° C and may, for example, by line losses and / or heat input from or heat dissipation into the environment may arise.

The "main compressor side" connections are characterized by, they are set up for connection to a warm part of the air separation plant. By contrast, the "main heat exchanger side" connections for connection to the main heat exchanger and / or main heat exchanger blocks or their connections are set up. As explained, when the main heat exchanger is provided, the number of the main compressor side ports and the main heat exchanger side ports differs. For connection to the main heat exchanger (s) and / or main heat exchanger blocks, the connections are arranged, in particular, by having a respectively suitable spatial arrangement and / or position. As explained, the casing module according to the invention is used in particular for header piping (or its partial replacement). The main heat exchanger-side connections are therefore preferably arranged above the casing module. The arrangement "above" or "below" is defined, for example, by a support structure which supports the casing module and has corresponding feet or structures on its underside.

In contrast to prefabricated header piping as mentioned above, the piping module allows three-dimensionally adapting the connecting piping between the respective ports of the main heat exchanger (s) and / or main heat exchanger blocks and the piping module. Advantageously, the casing module in this case has connections of at least one of the main heat exchanger and / or main heat exchanger blocks corresponding and coupled with these connections on its upper side, namely the mentioned main heat exchanger side connections, on.

A casing module according to the invention can be completely prefabricated, e.g. be painted, pressure tested, isolated, instrumented and wired. I.d.R. appropriate testing and monitoring facilities available that allow a safety inspection at the production site. In this way it can be avoided that, for example, damage or manufacturing defects are only discovered at the place of construction of the air separation plant, which necessitates expensive repairs or, in extreme cases, return transport.

By using a casing module according to the invention, the planning and design of an air separation plant can be significantly improved. The casing module according to the invention structures the layout of a corresponding system and provides a clear concept. This allows a large-scale creation of standardized modules with correspondingly matching connections in the sense of an arbitrarily expandable modular principle.

In particular, refineries, enhanced oil recovery and steel mills require significant quantities of clean gases. The air throughput of the largest plants for the production of nitrogen for the Enhanced Oil Recovery amounts to approx. 500,000 standard cubic meters of air per hour, for refineries plants with production volumes of approx. 860,000 standard cubic meters of oxygen per hour are under construction. For systems with an air flow rate of at least 200,000 standard cubic meters of air per hour, casing modules according to the invention can be transported without difficulty.

The main heat exchangers for plants of such size or corresponding main heat exchanger blocks can be produced in the required capacity only at a few specialized production sites. This is also due to the manufacturing technique for such devices. Particularly advantageous for the said systems are in particular vacuum-brazed aluminum plate heat exchangers. The production of such heat exchangers takes place in vacuum furnaces without the use of fluxes. This technique requires a high degree of Production quality, since the solder, which is used here for joining, deviates only slightly in its melting point from that of the materials to be joined.

In order to achieve maximum performance, however, high demands must also be placed on the assembly quality in the piping. In particular, improper welding can significantly affect the performance of the main heat exchangers, and thus the entire air separation plant. In particular, the required stress-free assembly of the pipes is difficult. In extreme cases, considerable damage can occur.

The casing module according to the invention significantly simplifies the piping of such main heat exchangers, so that the personnel employed need not be qualified to the extent that is conventionally required, or else highly qualified personnel only have to be employed for a shorter period of time.

As already partially addressed, a casing module according to the invention is advantageously designed for connecting at least two main heat exchangers and / or main heat exchanger blocks. This allows a particularly flexible creation of air separation plants, which can be adapted to the respective existing performance requirements.

For every gas application there is an optimal economy of the gas supply, which depends on numerous boundary conditions. The rectificatory air separation is usually sensible from a requirement of 200 standard cubic meters of nitrogen or 1,000 standard cubic meters of oxygen per hour. From these values to the aforementioned maximum performance results in a very wide range of production volumes, which must be covered by air separation plants. In particular, the main heat exchangers used can not be created in any size yet. Also below the maximum size defined by mechanical limits, the production of very large main heat exchanger often proves to be economically not useful. In these cases, as mentioned, it is necessary to use several main heat exchangers or main heat exchanger blocks (eg arranged in corresponding cold boxes) and to supply them together with air from the warm area of the plant. Especially in such cases a casing module with a corresponding connection option for several main heat exchanger and / or main heat exchanger blocks makes sense.

Advantageously, for this purpose, the piping modules according to the invention, as explained, equipped with at least one fluid distributor. A "fluid distributor" is understood to mean a tube arrangement which permits the connection of connections of a plurality of main heat exchangers and / or main heat exchanger blocks or a plurality of connections of a main heat exchanger to a common line. A fluid distributor helps to provide a plurality of sets of ports corresponding to the respective main heat exchangers to be connected, wherein, as explained, for example, n main compressor side ports and n × m main heat exchanger side ports are provided.

Also, such a fluid distributor can be advantageously designed as a module. A casing module can therefore be assembled, for example, at the production site from a basic module and a corresponding fluid distribution module. The basic module also makes sense to include components that are conventionally mounted in the field on the construction site. This allows a large-scale production and prefabrication of appropriate modules, which then only need to be mounted as needed. This allows efficient and timely creation of casing modules.

Advantageously, a separate main heat exchanger side connection set is provided for each main heat exchanger and / or main heat exchanger block, which comprises at least one supply line for compressed, pre-cleaned and pre-cooled air and a discharge line for cooling nitrogen. The main heat exchangers or main heat exchanger blocks used in the illustrated air separation plants have a series of lines which conduct fluid flows in both directions through the main heat exchanger or main heat exchanger blocks. The lines end at the top of the main heat exchanger or main heat exchanger blocks in one or more connecting pieces. Several connecting pieces are summarized in the illustrated fluid distributor, which is part of the casing module according to the invention. For this purpose, the aforementioned supply and discharge lines are provided.

The main heat exchangers in air separation plants of the type described at the beginning usually also pass through corresponding product streams which are passed through the main heat exchanger in countercurrent to the air fed from the warm part of the plant. Thus, a main heat exchanger side connection set also include other discharge lines, for example, for oxygen, product nitrogen and / or noble gases. If an additional high-pressure heat exchanger is provided in the air separation plant (which is to be connected to a corresponding after-circulation or cycle compressor), corresponding lines can also be provided in a line set for this purpose.

In corresponding connection sets, the corresponding connections are advantageously arranged spatially so that the simplest possible and direct connection of the main heat exchanger is ensured. Such a similar spatial arrangement can be normalized such that a variety of different modules - in the sense of the above-mentioned modular principle - can be connected to each other without costly adjustments. However, the spatial arrangement allows three-dimensional adaptation of corresponding connection lines, at least to a certain extent, in order, e.g. Compensate tolerances of modules and foundations.

For the connection of the casing module with the main heat exchanger (s), it is therefore possible in turn to use prefabricated connection pipes, if appropriate with correspondingly standardized flanges. This reduces the required assembly steps. However, these are still at least to some extent customizable.

A casing module according to the invention advantageously also comprises fire-protected oxygen transfer valves. Correspondingly required Brandabschottungseinrichtungen can also be prefabricated together with the other components of the casing module and thus spent in prefabricated and possibly suitably tested form to the site of the air separation plant. The usual foreclosure with a concrete wall is eliminated.

In a particularly preferred embodiment is an illustrated casing module, possibly with an integrated and / or modular previously explained Fluid distributor, formed for vertical arrangement next to the at least one main heat exchanger or a corresponding main heat exchanger block. On the one hand, this enables space-saving piping of one or more main heat exchangers and, on the other hand, simple prefabrication and unproblematic transport. Vertically locatable casing modules can be formed flat in a horizontal direction and therefore prefabricated lying. The required mounting space is therefore considerably reduced compared to conventional arrangements.

The present invention also provided air separation plant benefits from the advantages explained above, to which therefore can be explicitly referenced.

An inventive method for producing an air separation plant comprises a provision of at least one main heat exchanger and a casing module according to the invention and the connection of the at least one main heat exchanger to the casing module. Preferably, said components are prefabricated. This also results in the mentioned advantages.

It is understood that the features mentioned above and those yet to be explained below can be used not only in the particular combination given, but also in other combinations or in isolation, without departing from the scope of the present invention.

The invention is illustrated schematically with reference to an embodiment in the accompanying drawing and will be described in detail below with reference to the drawing.

Short description of the drawing

FIG. 1

shows an air separation plant according to the prior art in a highly simplified, schematic representation.

FIG. 2

shows a casing module with two main heat exchangers according to an embodiment of the invention in a schematic representation.

Embodiment (s) of the invention

In the figures, the same or equivalent elements may carry identical reference numerals and will not be explained repeatedly for the sake of clarity.

FIG. 1 shows an air separation plant according to the prior art in a highly simplified, schematic representation. This is designated 100 in total. The present invention relates in particular to the connection of a main heat exchanger in such an air separation plant 100. The main heat exchanger is provided in the form of a main heat exchanger module 1.

The main heat exchanger in the main heat exchanger module 1, which may comprise one or more main heat exchanger blocks in a corresponding coldbox, a dashed air flow is supplied, which was previously compressed in a compressor 2 and purified in an adsorber 3. Additional facilities such as filters and the like are not shown. Although in FIG. 1 only one adsorber 3 is shown, an air separation plant 100 typically comprises a plurality of adsorbers 3, which operated alternately and can be regenerated accordingly.

In the main heat exchanger in the main heat exchanger module 1, the supplied, compressed and purified air is cooled countercurrently with cold, gaseous nitrogen GAN from the head of a separation column 5 explained below.

The cooled to near liquefaction temperature air stream is subsequently expanded in an expansion valve 4 and fed in partially liquid form in a central region of the separation column 5. A corresponding system may additionally comprise a recompression of a (partial) air flow and a cooling in a high-pressure heat exchanger. Again, this is not shown for clarity. As already explained, instead of a single separation column 5, as in FIG. 1 represented, also several successive separation columns, double columns and the like can be used as a separation column system.

For the decomposition of the liquefied air, the different boiling points of its components are used. In the separation column 5, the liquid air trickles over a Number of highly simplified sieve trays countercurrent to non-liquefied ascending air downwards. The liquid is thereby stowed on the ground and flows through ascending vapor bubbles. Above all, the higher-boiling oxygen liquefies from the gas stream, while the lower-boiling nitrogen preferably evaporates from the liquid drops. For this reason, gaseous nitrogen GAN collects at the cold head of the separation column 5 and liquid oxygen LOX at the warmer bottom.

For further purification of the fractions, the liquid oxygen LOX is vaporized from the bottom of the separation column 5 in an evaporator 6, the gaseous nitrogen is liquefied in a so-called top condenser 7. The vaporized gaseous oxygen GOX and the liquified nitrogen LIN are returned to the separation column 5, where the rectification is repeated until the desired purity is achieved.

Correspondingly pure fluids can be removed from the bottom or head of the separation column 5 and stored for further use in liquid tanks 8, 9.

The separation column 5 can also be taken, for example, an oxygen-argon mixture O / Ar, from which in a separate process in a further column high-purity argon can be obtained. Separate columns are also needed for the extraction of the noble gases xenon, krypton, helium and / or neon.

For cooling of newly aspirated air (see above), a portion of the recovered nitrogen GAN is removed and returned to the main heat exchanger in the main heat exchanger module 1.

FIG. 2 shows a casing module with two main heat exchangers 1 a and 1 b according to an embodiment of the invention in a schematic representation. The casing module is indicated generally at 10, a main heat exchanger module containing the two main heat exchangers 1a and 1b is designated 1. Although in the FIG. 2 only two main heat exchanger 1 a and 1 b are shown, the invention can also be realized with more than two or only one main heat exchanger. The main heat exchanger module 1 can be designed, for example, in the form of a cold box, as explained above.

The casing module 10 may be constructed from a base module 11 and a fluid distribution module 12, which are interconnected via a suitable connection 13. In the basic module 11, central components such as corresponding valves 14 may be arranged. In the FIG. 2 Here, only one line is shown in the basic module 11, which is divided into two lines in the fluid distribution module 12. As explained, however, a main heat exchanger module 1 or the main heat exchangers 1 a and 1 b arranged therein are in practice flowed through by a plurality of different fluid streams in countercurrent to one another, so that the said lines are also present in a plurality. As explained, a set of connections in the fluid distribution module 12 is provided for each main heat exchanger 1 a or 1 b to be connected.

The piping module 10 may further comprise - in the main module 11 and / or the fluid distribution module 12 - at least one pressure, temperature and / or Druchflussregler 15. Not shown are, for example, fire-protected oxygen valves.

As mentioned, the fluid distribution module 12 has a set of connections 12a and 12b, respectively, for the main heat exchangers 1 a and 1 b to be connected. These can be very easily connected with corresponding terminals 12a 'and 12b' to be connected to the main heat exchanger 1 a and 1 b.

Claims (11)

Casing module (10), by means of which at least two fluid connections (10a ', 10b') of at least one main heat exchanger (1a, 1b) designed for use in an air separation plant (100) can be connected to at least two fluid lines in a warm part of the air separation plant (100) wherein the casing module (10) has at least two main compressor side ports connectable to the at least two fluid lines in the warm part of the air separation plant (100) and at least two main heat exchanger side ports (10a, 10b) connected to the at least two fluid ports (10a '; , 10b ') of the at least one main heat exchanger (1a, 1b), and at least two fluid lines connecting the at least two main compressor side ports and the at least two main heat exchanger side ports (10a, 10b). Casing module (10) according to claim 1, which is designed for vertical arrangement laterally next to the at least one main heat exchanger (1 a, 1 b), wherein the main heat exchanger side terminals (10a, 10b) are arranged on an upper side of the casing module (10). Casing module (10) according to claim 1 or 2, which is adapted for connection of at least two fluid connections (10a ', 10b') of the at least one main heat exchanger (1 a, 1 b) to a common fluid line in the warm part of the air separation plant (100). Casing module (10) according to claim 3, comprising at least one fluid distributor (12) for connecting the at least two fluid connections (10a ', 10b') of the at least one main heat exchanger (1 a, 1 b) to the common fluid line in the warm part the air separation plant (100) is arranged and in each case at least two main heat exchanger-side connections (10a, 10b) coupled to a main compressor side port. The casing module (10) of claim 4, wherein the at least one fluid distributor is formed as a fluid distribution module (12) connected to a base module (11) is attachable having the at least two main compressor side ports. Casing module (10) according to one of the preceding claims, wherein for connecting m main heat exchangers (1 a, 1 b), each with a number of n fluid connections (10a ', 10b') m main heat exchanger side connection sets each with n main heat exchanger side terminals (10a, 10b ) are provided. Casing module (10) according to claim 6, wherein the m main heat exchanger side connection sets each have the n main heat exchanger side terminals (10a, 10b) in a similar spatial arrangement. Casing module (10) according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the at least two main compressor side ports and the at least two main heat exchanger side ports (10a, 10b) connecting fluid lines at least one supply line for compressed, pre-cleaned and / or pre-cooled air and a discharge line for cooling nitrogen (GAN ). Casing module (10) according to one of the preceding claims, in which at least one fire-protected oxygen transfer valve is arranged. Air separation plant (100), which has at least one casing module (10) according to one of the preceding claims, at least one main heat exchanger (1a, 1b) connected thereto and a hot part with a main compressor, at least two fluid connections (10a ', 10b') of the at least one main heat exchanger (1a, 1b) having at least two fluid lines in the hot part by means of the casing module (10) are interconnected. A method for producing an air separation plant (100) according to claim 10, comprising at least one main heat exchanger (1 a, 1 b) and at least one casing module (10) according to one of claims 1 to 9 provide and the at least one main heat exchanger (1 a, 1 b) to connect fluidically to the at least one casing module (10), wherein at least two fluid connections (10a ', 10b') of the at least one main heat exchanger (1a, 1b) with at least two fluid lines in the warm part by means of the casing module (10) are interconnected.

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