A system and method for cryogenic air separation arrangement having a booster loaded liquid turbine for expansion of a liquid air stream or other fluid having liquid-like densities is provided. The disclosed booster loaded liquid turbines are relatively small to provide an aerodynamic and speed match between the turbine and the coupled gas compressor. The coupled gas compressor is a supplemental booster compressor and may be a dedicated warm booster compressor or alternatively a cold booster compressor.

The device (100) for cooling a flow (101) of a target fluid predominantly comprising dihydrogen, comprises: a first heat exchanger (105) configured to cool an intermediate refrigerant fluid (110) by heat exchange with an expanded dioxygen flow (115), an intermediate closed circuit (120) for transporting the intermediate refrigerant fluid from the first heat exchanger to a second heat exchanger (125), a means (130) for compressing the intermediate refrigerant fluid along the intermediate closed circuit, the intermediate refrigerant fluid, configured to remain in the liquid or supercritical state at least upon passing through the compression means and the second heat exchanger configured to cool the target fluid flow by heat exchange with the intermediate refrigerant fluid cooled in the first heat exchanger.

An ultra-high-purity oxygen production method and apparatus are provide, in which the method can include a step in which feed oxygen comprising low-boiling-point components as impurities is introduced from a warm end of a main heat exchanger and cooled, then introduced into an oxygen rectification column, and product ultra-high-purity oxygen from which the low-boiling-point components have been removed is drawn as a gas or a liquid from a lower portion of the oxygen rectification column.

An air separation unit including: a main heat exchanger, a medium-pressure rectification column, a low-pressure rectification column, a crude argon column, a nitrogen condenser, a crude argon condenser, an oxygen turbine, a nitrogen compressor, and a nitrogen turbine. The nitrogen turbine expands nitrogen gas supplied from the nitrogen compressor. The air separation unit includes an inlet temperature of the oxygen turbine is lower than an inlet temperature of the nitrogen turbine.

A system and method for the liquefaction and densification of oxygen for use in space vehicle applications is provided that uses high pressure air or synthetic air as the refrigerant source. The disclosed system and method employs a heat exchanger arrangement comprising a first heat exchange device configured to liquefy the high pressure gaseous oxygen stream and at least a portion of the high pressure gaseous air stream via indirect heat exchange with a refrigerant stream to yield a liquid oxygen stream and a liquid air stream. The heat exchanger arrangement also includes a second heat exchange device configured to densify the liquified oxygen stream via indirect heat exchange with the liquid air stream which yields the densified liquid oxygen and a cold vaporized air stream. The refrigerant stream comprises a mixture of the exhaust streams from one or more turbines with the cold vaporized air stream.

A process for cryogenic air separation and liquefaction, including purifying and compressing an inlet air stream, thereby producing a compressed inlet air stream, dividing the compressed inlet air stream into an ASU portion and a liquefaction portion, introducing the ASU portion into an air separation unit, thereby producing a gaseous oxygen steam and a gaseous nitrogen stream, and introducing the liquefaction portion, the gaseous oxygen steam and the gaseous nitrogen stream into a liquefaction unit, thereby producing a liquid nitrogen stream and a liquid oxygen stream. Wherein, the air separation unit is located more than 200 meters from the liquefaction unit, and there is no compression driven by external energy within 200 meters of the liquefaction unit.