A system and method for argon production in an air separation plant facility or enclave having multiple cryogenic air separation units is provided. The present system and method include a centralized argon refining system disposed within one of the cryogenic air separation units and which is configured to include an argon superstaged or ultra-superstaged column arrangement having one or more argon columns and an argon condenser. Crude argon streams from one or more of the other cryogenic air separation units are directed to the argon superstaged or ultra-superstaged column arrangement of the centralized argon refining process.

The air separation system can include: a process control unit 201 for controlling components constituting the air separation system; an oxygen concentration estimating unit 202 for estimating, by calculation, the oxygen concentration of oxygen-enriched liquid that accumulates in a column bottom portion of the higher-pressure column; a flow rate estimating unit for estimating, by calculation, the flow rate of oxygen-enriched liquid that has been discharged from the column bottom portion of the higher-pressure column and that is to be introduced into a distillation portion of the lower-pressure column; and a target temperature calculating unit for calculating a target temperature of an argon extraction portion on the basis of the flow rate of feed air that has passed through at least a portion of the main heat exchanger 1 and that is to be sent to an expansion turbine, the oxygen concentration of the oxygen-enriched liquid, and the flow rate of the oxygen-enriched liquid.

The present invention relates to an adsorption process for xenon recovery from a cryogenic liquid or gas stream wherein a bed of adsorbent is contacted with a xenon-containing liquid or gas stream selectively adsorbing the xenon from said stream. The adsorption bed is operated to at least near full breakthrough with xenon to enable a deep rejection of other stream components, prior to regeneration using the temperature swing method. After the stripping step, the xenon adsorbent bed is drained to clear out the liquid residue left in the nonselective void space and the xenon molecules in those void spaces is recycled upstream to the ASU distillation column for increasing xenon recovery. The xenon adsorbent bed is optionally purged with oxygen, followed by purging with gaseous argon at cryogenic temperature (160 K) to displace the oxygen co-adsorbed on the AgX adsorbent due to higher selectivity of argon over oxygen on the AgX adsorbent. By the end of this step, the xenon adsorbent bed is filled with argon and xenon. Then the entire adsorbent bed is heated indirectly without utilizing any of the purge gas for direct heating. Operating the adsorption bed to near full breakthrough with xenon and displacing the adsorbed oxygen and other residues with argon, prior to regeneration, along with indirect heating of the bed, enables production of a high purity product 40 vol % xenon from the adsorption bed and further enables safely heating without any purge gas and ease for downstream product collection, even in cases where hydrocarbons are co-present in the feed stream.

A liquefier device which may be a retrofit to an air separation plant or utilized as part of a new design. The flow needed for the liquefier comes from an air separation plant running in a maxim oxygen state, in a stable mode. The three gas flows are low pressure oxygen, low pressure nitrogen, and higher pressure nitrogen. All of the flows are found on the side of the main heat exchanger with a temperature of about 37 degrees Fahrenheit. All of the gasses put into the liquefier come out as a subcooled liquid, for storage or return to the air separation plant. This new liquefier does not include a front end electrical compressor, and will take a self produced liquid nitrogen, pump it up to a runnable 420 psig pressure, and with the use of turbines, condensers, flash pots, and multi pass heat exchangers. The liquefier will make liquid from a planned amount of any pure gas oxygen or nitrogen an air separation plant can produce.

The invention relates to a method for separating air by cryogenic distillation in a column system, comprising a first column operating at a first pressure and a second column operating at a second pressure, in which an argon-enriched flow is sent from an intermediate point of the first column to the tank of the second column and an argon-rich flow is drawn off at the top of the second column, wherein a nitrogen-enriched flow of the first column is compressed in a compressor, the compressed flow is sent to a head condenser of the second column after an expansion step and the vaporized flow is expanded in the condenser in a turbine where it at least partially liquefies.

A distillation column system and a plant are for production of oxygen by cryogenic fractionation of air. The distillation column system has a high-pressure column and a low-pressure column, a main condenser, and an argon column with an argon column top condenser. The low-pressure column comprises an upper mass transfer region, a lower mass transfer region and a middle mass transfer region. The argon column top condenser is arranged within the low-pressure column between the upper and middle mass transfer regions and is configured as a forced-flow evaporator.

A cryogenic air separation apparatus comprises: a heat exchanger, a first rectification column, a first condenser, a second rectification column, a third rectification column, a second condenser, a high-purity oxygen rectification column, a third condenser, a nitrogen compressor, and a compressed recycled gas line L52 for introducing product nitrogen gas compressed by the first nitrogen compressor into a warm end (heat source) of an ultra-high-purity oxygen vaporizer as a compressed recycled gas.

A method and device to variably obtain argon by means of low-temperature separation. Feed air is cooled in a main heat exchanger and then conducted into a distillation column system with a high-pressure column and a low-pressure column. Argon is obtained using a crud argon column and a purified argon column. A purified liquid argon product flow is generated from an argon-enriched flow from the low-pressure column. In a first operating mode, a first quantity of purified argon product is discharged, and in a second operating mode, a reduced quantity of purified argon product is discharged. In the second operating mode, a gaseous argon return flow is drawn from the crude argon column or the purified argon column and heated in a separate passage of the main heat exchanger.

In a method for reheating an atmospheric vaporizer, a cryogenic liquid is vaporized by heat exchange with ambient air in the atmospheric vaporizer and to reheat the vaporizer, a gas is sent thereto at a temperature of at least 0 C., this gas originating from a cryogenic distillation air separation unit.

A method and apparatus for separating air in which an oxygen-rich liquid stream is pumped and then heated within a heat exchanger to produce an oxygen product through indirect heat exchange with first and second boosted pressure air streams. The first boosted pressure air stream is cold compressed at an intermediate temperature of the heat exchanger, reintroduced into the heat exchanger at a warmer temperature and then fully cooled and liquefied. The second boosted pressure air stream, after having been partially cooled, is expanded to produce an exhaust stream that is in turn introduced into a lower pressure column producing the oxygen-rich liquid. The second boosted pressure air stream is partially cooled to a temperature no greater than the intermediate temperature at which the cold compression occurs so that both the first and second boosted pressure air streams are able to take part in the heating of the oxygen-rich stream.