GB191203147A - A Process and Apparatus for the Production of Nitrogen and for Obtaining Useful Products in the said Process. - Google Patents

Abstract

3147. Wallace, R. W., and Wassmer, E. Feb. 7. Nitrogen is obtained by passing a mixture thereof with oxygen through a chamber containing phosphorus; oxides of phosphorus are formed, and are subsequently separated from the nitrogen by deposition or by treatment with water, forming phosphorus oxyacids which may be saturated with any base, forming phosphates &c. The gaseous mixture treated may be atmospheric air, furnace gases, waste gases from the sulphuric acid chamber process, gas-engines, etc.; it is first freed, if necessary, from carbon dioxide, moisture, carbon monoxide, and sulphuretted hydrogen by any known method. The phosphorus is distilled off from a convenient source into one of two chambers or towers, or series thereof, placed in parallel, where it condenses on suitable refractory substances arranged to present large surfaces. When one tower, or a series, is saturated with phosphorus, the condensation is transferred to the other and the first is used for separating out nitrogen. Carbon monoxide in the gases may either be preliminarily burnt with excess of air before admission to the towers and the dioxide formed absorbed by means of ammonia solution, or if not previously removed, it is oxidized in the towers, any excess of oxygen from the air admitted for this purpose being subsequently removed by means of phosphorus. In connexion with the separation, the gaseous mixture may be bubbled through liquid phosphorus at the bottom of the tower.