US3129080A - Equipment for supplying both air compressed to high pressure and liquid oxygen - Google Patents

Equipment for supplying both air compressed to high pressure and liquid oxygen Download PDF

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Publication number
US3129080A
US3129080A US135649A US13564961A US3129080A US 3129080 A US3129080 A US 3129080A US 135649 A US135649 A US 135649A US 13564961 A US13564961 A US 13564961A US 3129080 A US3129080 A US 3129080A
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US
United States
Prior art keywords
air
high pressure
column
cold
supplying
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Expired - Lifetime
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US135649A
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English (en)
Inventor
Kohler Jacob Willem Laurens
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US Philips Corp
North American Philips Co Inc
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US Philips Corp
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    • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
    • F25—REFRIGERATION OR COOLING; COMBINED HEATING AND REFRIGERATION SYSTEMS; HEAT PUMP SYSTEMS; MANUFACTURE OR STORAGE OF ICE; LIQUEFACTION SOLIDIFICATION OF GASES
    • F25J—LIQUEFACTION, SOLIDIFICATION OR SEPARATION OF GASES OR GASEOUS OR LIQUEFIED GASEOUS MIXTURES BY PRESSURE AND COLD TREATMENT OR BY BRINGING THEM INTO THE SUPERCRITICAL STATE
    • F25J3/00—Processes or apparatus for separating the constituents of gaseous or liquefied gaseous mixtures involving the use of liquefaction or solidification
    • F25J3/02—Processes or apparatus for separating the constituents of gaseous or liquefied gaseous mixtures involving the use of liquefaction or solidification by rectification, i.e. by continuous interchange of heat and material between a vapour stream and a liquid stream
    • F25J3/04—Processes or apparatus for separating the constituents of gaseous or liquefied gaseous mixtures involving the use of liquefaction or solidification by rectification, i.e. by continuous interchange of heat and material between a vapour stream and a liquid stream for air
    • F25J3/044—Processes or apparatus for separating the constituents of gaseous or liquefied gaseous mixtures involving the use of liquefaction or solidification by rectification, i.e. by continuous interchange of heat and material between a vapour stream and a liquid stream for air using a single pressure main column system only
    • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
    • F25—REFRIGERATION OR COOLING; COMBINED HEATING AND REFRIGERATION SYSTEMS; HEAT PUMP SYSTEMS; MANUFACTURE OR STORAGE OF ICE; LIQUEFACTION SOLIDIFICATION OF GASES
    • F25J—LIQUEFACTION, SOLIDIFICATION OR SEPARATION OF GASES OR GASEOUS OR LIQUEFIED GASEOUS MIXTURES BY PRESSURE AND COLD TREATMENT OR BY BRINGING THEM INTO THE SUPERCRITICAL STATE
    • F25J3/00—Processes or apparatus for separating the constituents of gaseous or liquefied gaseous mixtures involving the use of liquefaction or solidification
    • F25J3/02—Processes or apparatus for separating the constituents of gaseous or liquefied gaseous mixtures involving the use of liquefaction or solidification by rectification, i.e. by continuous interchange of heat and material between a vapour stream and a liquid stream
    • F25J3/04—Processes or apparatus for separating the constituents of gaseous or liquefied gaseous mixtures involving the use of liquefaction or solidification by rectification, i.e. by continuous interchange of heat and material between a vapour stream and a liquid stream for air
    • F25J3/04006—Providing pressurised feed air or process streams within or from the air fractionation unit
    • F25J3/04078—Providing pressurised feed air or process streams within or from the air fractionation unit providing pressurized products by liquid compression and vaporisation with cold recovery, i.e. so-called internal compression
    • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
    • F25—REFRIGERATION OR COOLING; COMBINED HEATING AND REFRIGERATION SYSTEMS; HEAT PUMP SYSTEMS; MANUFACTURE OR STORAGE OF ICE; LIQUEFACTION SOLIDIFICATION OF GASES
    • F25J—LIQUEFACTION, SOLIDIFICATION OR SEPARATION OF GASES OR GASEOUS OR LIQUEFIED GASEOUS MIXTURES BY PRESSURE AND COLD TREATMENT OR BY BRINGING THEM INTO THE SUPERCRITICAL STATE
    • F25J3/00—Processes or apparatus for separating the constituents of gaseous or liquefied gaseous mixtures involving the use of liquefaction or solidification
    • F25J3/02—Processes or apparatus for separating the constituents of gaseous or liquefied gaseous mixtures involving the use of liquefaction or solidification by rectification, i.e. by continuous interchange of heat and material between a vapour stream and a liquid stream
    • F25J3/04—Processes or apparatus for separating the constituents of gaseous or liquefied gaseous mixtures involving the use of liquefaction or solidification by rectification, i.e. by continuous interchange of heat and material between a vapour stream and a liquid stream for air
    • F25J3/04248—Generation of cold for compensating heat leaks or liquid production, e.g. by Joule-Thompson expansion
    • F25J3/04278—Generation of cold for compensating heat leaks or liquid production, e.g. by Joule-Thompson expansion using external refrigeration units, e.g. closed mechanical or regenerative refrigeration units
    • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
    • F25—REFRIGERATION OR COOLING; COMBINED HEATING AND REFRIGERATION SYSTEMS; HEAT PUMP SYSTEMS; MANUFACTURE OR STORAGE OF ICE; LIQUEFACTION SOLIDIFICATION OF GASES
    • F25J—LIQUEFACTION, SOLIDIFICATION OR SEPARATION OF GASES OR GASEOUS OR LIQUEFIED GASEOUS MIXTURES BY PRESSURE AND COLD TREATMENT OR BY BRINGING THEM INTO THE SUPERCRITICAL STATE
    • F25J2200/00—Processes or apparatus using separation by rectification
    • F25J2200/70—Refluxing the column with a condensed part of the feed stream, i.e. fractionator top is stripped or self-rectified
    • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
    • F25—REFRIGERATION OR COOLING; COMBINED HEATING AND REFRIGERATION SYSTEMS; HEAT PUMP SYSTEMS; MANUFACTURE OR STORAGE OF ICE; LIQUEFACTION SOLIDIFICATION OF GASES
    • F25J—LIQUEFACTION, SOLIDIFICATION OR SEPARATION OF GASES OR GASEOUS OR LIQUEFIED GASEOUS MIXTURES BY PRESSURE AND COLD TREATMENT OR BY BRINGING THEM INTO THE SUPERCRITICAL STATE
    • F25J2205/00—Processes or apparatus using other separation and/or other processing means
    • F25J2205/24—Processes or apparatus using other separation and/or other processing means using regenerators, cold accumulators or reversible heat exchangers
    • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
    • F25—REFRIGERATION OR COOLING; COMBINED HEATING AND REFRIGERATION SYSTEMS; HEAT PUMP SYSTEMS; MANUFACTURE OR STORAGE OF ICE; LIQUEFACTION SOLIDIFICATION OF GASES
    • F25J—LIQUEFACTION, SOLIDIFICATION OR SEPARATION OF GASES OR GASEOUS OR LIQUEFIED GASEOUS MIXTURES BY PRESSURE AND COLD TREATMENT OR BY BRINGING THEM INTO THE SUPERCRITICAL STATE
    • F25J2215/00—Processes characterised by the type or other details of the product stream
    • F25J2215/40—Air or oxygen enriched air, i.e. generally less than 30mol% of O2
    • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
    • F25—REFRIGERATION OR COOLING; COMBINED HEATING AND REFRIGERATION SYSTEMS; HEAT PUMP SYSTEMS; MANUFACTURE OR STORAGE OF ICE; LIQUEFACTION SOLIDIFICATION OF GASES
    • F25J—LIQUEFACTION, SOLIDIFICATION OR SEPARATION OF GASES OR GASEOUS OR LIQUEFIED GASEOUS MIXTURES BY PRESSURE AND COLD TREATMENT OR BY BRINGING THEM INTO THE SUPERCRITICAL STATE
    • F25J2270/00—Refrigeration techniques used
    • F25J2270/90—External refrigeration, e.g. conventional closed-loop mechanical refrigeration unit using Freon or NH3, unspecified external refrigeration

Definitions

  • the invention relates to the method of cooling air, which may be precompressed, in a heat-exchanger to little below the dew-point, then liquefying the cooled and precompressed air by means of a cold-gas refrigerator and subsequently compressing it to, for example, 300 atmospheres by means of a liquid compressor.
  • the compressed air may be heated up in the heat-exchanger by the precompressed air flowing towards the cold-gas refrigerator.
  • cold-gas refrigerator is to be understood herein to mean a driven piston machine comprising a first space of a variable volume, which space communicates with a second space which is likewise of a variable Volume and in which a temperature prevails which exceeds that in the first machine space during operation of the machine, a regenerator being provided between the two spaces and a gaseous working medium being capable of flowing forwards and backwards between the spaces through the regenerator in order to convey heat from a lower temperature level to a higher temperature level.
  • the efiiciency is poor and, second, the impurities in the air, such as water and carboxylic acid, have to be frozen out.
  • the e-fiiciency is poor because the cold which is required for the liquefaction is recuperated only in part. The high-pressure gas thus comes out too cold.
  • a possibility for improvement consists in passing a quantity of air through the heat-exchanger which in the forward direction is so much greater than in the backward direction that the heat-exchanger, instead of being unbalanced, is in a thermally balanced condition.
  • a saturated vapour then remains, namely that which is not returned through the heat-exchanger. According to calculations, 64% of the introduced air has to be returned, so that 36% of saturated vapour remains.
  • This vapour may be liquefied, as a matter of fact, by means of the same or a different cold-gas refrigerator.
  • Another possibility consists in that an excess of air is precompressed and the excess, before liquefaction of the air, is expanded to 1 atm. and is returned through the heat-exchanger.
  • the volume in the return direction exceeds that in the forward direction, so that the air may be cooled in commutatable heat-exchangers, for example regenerators or recuperators, and purification of these heat-exchangers no longer causes difficulty.
  • the invention now provides an equipment which has the advantages of both possibilities initially described without the disadvantages thereof.
  • the equipment in accordance with the invention comprises a precompressor for the precompression of air (for example to 5 atmospheres), of which the outlet for precompressed air is connected to a heat-exchanger, the outlet of which leads to the cold head of a cold-gas refrigerator in which the precompressed air is liquefied and is carried away, partly to a condenser-evaporator of an oxygen-supplying column and partly to a liquid compressor which compresses the air to a high pressure (for example 300 atmospheres), a duct for the high-pressure air extending through the said heat-exchanger and cooling therein the prccompressed air while the outlet of the precompressor is also connected through a heat-exchanger to the oxygen-supplying column.
  • a precompressor for the precompression of air for example to 5 atmospheres
  • FIGURE 1 A flow diagram of the equipment constructed in accordance with the invention is shown in FIGURE 1.
  • FIG. 2 is a flow diagram of a working installation of the principles of FIG. 1.
  • Air is precompressed by the precompressor 1 to, for example, 5 atmospheres and passed through a duct 20 to a cold-gas refrigerator 4.
  • the air liquefied therein flows out of a duct 21 partly to a liquid compressor 7, an outlet duct 22 of which, together with the duct 20', constitutcs a heat-exchanger, and partly to a condenser-boiling or condenser-evaporation vessel 27 of an oxygen-supplying column 24.
  • An additional quantity of cooled air of 5 atmospheres is supplied to the boiling vessel 27 from an outlet duct 1a of the compressor 1 through a heat-exchanger 2 or 3, which heat-exchangers are again reversable.
  • This air is cooled by waste nitrogen which leaves the column 24 at its upper end through a duct 25.
  • Air from the boiling vessel is expanded in a Joule-Thomson cook 26 and introduced at 29 into the column. Liquid oxygen is carried away through a duct 28.
  • Such an oxygen column is described in greater detail in U.S. patent application Serial No. 6,500, filed February 3, 1960.
  • the heat-exchangers 2 and 3 are in this example in thermally balanced condition.
  • all of the heat exchangers can be made self-cleaning by using an embodiment of the invention comprising two reversable heat-exchangers which are constructed as regenerators or recuperators and each of which is designed so that both the precompressed air passed to the cold head of the cold-gas refrigerator and the precompressed air passed directly to the boiling vessel of the oxygen column may fiow through them in one direction and furthermore the air compressed to a high pressure and the waste nitrogen from the column may flow through them in the opposite direction, the arrangement being such that the two regenerators are both balanced and self-cleaning.
  • FIGURE 2 shows the principle of the diagram then obtained.
  • the boiling vessel of the column is designated 27.
  • the heat-exchangers 2 and 3 are again reversable as indicated by the presence of ducts 30, 31, 32, 33.
  • Reference numerals 9 and 10 denote ducts for air of a very high pressure originating from the liquid compressor 7.
  • This construction may also be regarded as an addition to the equipment for the supply of liquid oxygen as described in said US. patent application No. 6,500, comprising a device for producing also a quantity of air of a very high pressure, which is brought about by the addition of a liquid compressor and high-pressure returns ducts 9 and 10 respectively, which extend through the heat-exchangers 2 and 3, respectively.
  • Such an equipment supplies the same quantity of oxygen as that without the addition and moreover 1.5 to 1.7 times this quantity in the form of high-pressure air. Also it is not necessary periodically to free the system of ice.
  • the cold energy supplied by the cold-gas refrigerator is employed very efiicaciously in such an equipment.
  • An apparatus for supplying both high pressure air and liquid oxygen comprising a cold-gas refrigerator, a liquid oxygen supplying column provided with a condenser-evaporator, conduit means for connecting said condenser-evaporator to said column for supplying gaseous oxygen thereto, a high pressure liquid compressor for producing high pressure air, a precompressor for precompression of atmospheric air to relatively low pressures, a heat exchanger, the outlet of said precompressor being operatively connected to said heat exchanger for cooling said precompressed air, conduit means for partly conducting the precompressed, cooled air to the cold head of said cold-gas refrigerator and partly to the condenser-evaporator of said liquid oxygen supplying column, means for cooling said precompressed air flowing through said column by the waste gases of said column flowing in the opposite direction, said cold-gas refrigerator being provided with a liquid discharge conduit arrangement for conveyng part of the liquified air from said high pressure liquid compressor to the condenser-evaporator of said column and part to said high pressure liquid compressor, and
  • An apparatus for supplying both compressed air and liquid oxygen comprising a cold-gas refrigerator, a liquid oxygen supplying column provided with a condenser-evaporator, conduit means for connecting said condenser-evaporator to said column for supplying gaseous oxygen thereto, a high pressure liquid compressor for producing high pressure air, a pair of reversable heat exchangers, a precompressor for precompression of atmospheric air to relatively low pressures, said heat exchangers being provided with ducts whereby both the precompressed air passed directly to said condenserevaporator of said oxygen column and the precompressed air passed to the cold head of said cold-gas refrigerator flows through one heat exchanger and passes alternately and selectively in one direction in a selected duct while said air compressed to a high pressure by said high pressure liquid compressor and the waste nitrogen from the column flows alternately and selectively through another selected duct and another heat exchanger in an opposite direction, said heat exchangers being both balanced and self-cleaning, the outlet of said precompressor being operatively connected to said

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  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
  • Thermal Sciences (AREA)
  • General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Separation By Low-Temperature Treatments (AREA)
US135649A 1960-09-13 1961-09-01 Equipment for supplying both air compressed to high pressure and liquid oxygen Expired - Lifetime US3129080A (en)

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
NL255866 1960-09-13

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
US3129080A true US3129080A (en) 1964-04-14

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ID=19752567

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Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
US135649A Expired - Lifetime US3129080A (en) 1960-09-13 1961-09-01 Equipment for supplying both air compressed to high pressure and liquid oxygen

Country Status (6)

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US (1) US3129080A (it)
CH (1) CH403822A (it)
DE (1) DE1173111B (it)
DK (1) DK118829B (it)
GB (1) GB991001A (it)
NL (2) NL255866A (it)

Cited By (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US6062043A (en) * 1996-09-25 2000-05-16 L'air Liquide, Societe Anonyme Pour L'etude Et L'exploitation Des Procedes Georges Claude Process for feeding a gas-consuming unit

Citations (6)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
DE830805C (de) * 1944-11-19 1952-02-07 Linde Eismasch Ag Verfahren zur Gas-, insbesondere zur Luftzerlegung
US2763138A (en) * 1954-02-16 1956-09-18 American Messer Corp Process and apparatus for separating gases
US2918802A (en) * 1956-09-27 1959-12-29 Air Liquide Process of separation of air into its elements
US2934909A (en) * 1954-11-03 1960-05-03 Philips Corp System comprising a refrigerator intended for fractionating gas mixtures
US2936593A (en) * 1956-04-27 1960-05-17 Air Liquide Process for the production of ammonia synthesis gas
US2959926A (en) * 1955-02-04 1960-11-15 Stamicarbon Generation of cold or cooling by evaporation of a liquid evaporating at a very low temperature

Family Cites Families (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
BE502782A (it) * 1950-04-26
BE518067A (it) * 1952-02-29

Patent Citations (6)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
DE830805C (de) * 1944-11-19 1952-02-07 Linde Eismasch Ag Verfahren zur Gas-, insbesondere zur Luftzerlegung
US2763138A (en) * 1954-02-16 1956-09-18 American Messer Corp Process and apparatus for separating gases
US2934909A (en) * 1954-11-03 1960-05-03 Philips Corp System comprising a refrigerator intended for fractionating gas mixtures
US2959926A (en) * 1955-02-04 1960-11-15 Stamicarbon Generation of cold or cooling by evaporation of a liquid evaporating at a very low temperature
US2936593A (en) * 1956-04-27 1960-05-17 Air Liquide Process for the production of ammonia synthesis gas
US2918802A (en) * 1956-09-27 1959-12-29 Air Liquide Process of separation of air into its elements

Cited By (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US6062043A (en) * 1996-09-25 2000-05-16 L'air Liquide, Societe Anonyme Pour L'etude Et L'exploitation Des Procedes Georges Claude Process for feeding a gas-consuming unit

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
CH403822A (de) 1965-12-15
DE1173111B (de) 1964-07-02
GB991001A (en) 1965-05-05
NL255866A (it)
NL112988C (it)
DK118829B (da) 1970-10-12

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