A process for recovering at least one fluid (e.g. xenon gas and/or krypton gas, etc.) from a feed gas can include utilization of a compression system, primary heat exchanger unit, a pre-purification unit (PPU), and other units to separate and recover at least one desired fluid. In some embodiments, fluid flows output from a first heat exchanger or separation system of the plant can be split so that a portion of a stream is output for downstream processing to purify xenon (Xe) and/or krypton (Kr) product flow(s) while another portion of the stream is recycled to a compression system or the PPU to undergo further purification and heat exchange so that the product output for downstream processing has a higher concentration of Xe or Kr. Some embodiments can be configured to provide an improved recovery of Xe and/or Kr as well as an improvement in operational efficiency.

A system and method for flexible production of argon from a cryogenic air separation unit is provided. The cryogenic air separation unit is capable of operating in a ‘no-argon’ or ‘low-argon’ mode when argon demand is low or non-existent and then switching to operating in a ‘high-argon’ mode when argon is needed. The recovery of the argon products from the air separation unit is adjusted by varying the percentages of dirty shelf nitrogen and clean shelf nitrogen in the reflux stream directed to the lower pressure column. The cryogenic air separation unit and associated method also provides an efficient argon production/rejection process that minimizes the power consumption when the cryogenic air separation unit is operating in a ‘no-argon’ or ‘low-argon’ mode yet maintains the capability to produce higher volumes of argon products at full design capacity to meet argon product demands.

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.

A system and method for flexible production of argon from a cryogenic air separation unit is provided. The cryogenic air separation unit is capable of operating in a ‘no-argon’ or ‘low-argon’ mode when argon demand is low or non-existent and then switching to operating in a ‘high-argon’ mode when argon is needed. The recovery of the argon products from the air separation unit is adjusted by varying the percentages of dirty shelf nitrogen and clean shelf nitrogen in the reflux stream directed to the lower pressure column. The cryogenic air separation unit and associated method also provides an efficient argon production/rejection process that minimizes the power consumption when the cryogenic air separation unit is operating in a ‘no-argon’ or ‘low-argon’ mode yet maintains the capability to produce higher volumes of argon products at full design capacity to meet argon product demands.

A method and apparatus for producing a high-pressure gas from an air separation unit is provided, in which the method includes the steps of introducing a cold air feed into a distillation column system under conditions effective for separating the cold air feed into a first air gas and a second air gas; withdrawing the first and second air gases from the distillation column system and warming said first and second air gases in a main heat exchanger, wherein the first air gas is withdrawn from the distillation column system at a medium pressure; splitting the first air gas into a first fraction and a second fraction; expanding the first fraction in a turbine; and compressing the second fraction in a booster to a pressure that is higher than the medium pressure, wherein the booster is powered by the turbine

In a method for separating air by cryogenic distillation using a column system consisting of a higher pressure column operating at a first pressure and a lower pressure column operating at a second pressure, a first air flow constituting between 75% and 98% of the air sent to the column system compressed to a third pressure above the first pressure, is sent to the higher pressure column, a second air flow constituting between 5% and 25% of the air sent to the column system is compressed to a fourth pressure above the second pressure but lower than the third pressure, is sent to the lower pressure column, a third column separates an argon-enriched flow and the air sent to the lower pressure column constitutes between 10% and 25% of the total air sent to the column system.

A stackable modular element comprises a parallelepipedal caisson, the caisson comprising at least one layer of thermal insulation of thickness less than one-third of the width of the caisson, the layer of insulation covering at least the lateral and frontal faces of the caisson and surrounding at least one chamber having a parallelepipedal volume within the caisson, the chamber containing at least one body of material that permits the exchange of mass and/or of heat, the body being parallelepipedal in shape and filling at least part of the chamber, the chamber having an opening on the upper face and/or an opening on the lower face to allow fluid to be transferred to the body from outside the element and/or from the body to outside the element.

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 method for flexible production of argon from a cryogenic air separation unit is provided. The disclosed cryogenic air separation unit is capable of operating in a ‘no-argon’ or ‘low-argon’ mode when argon demand is low or non-existent and then switching to operating in a ‘high-argon’ mode when argon is needed. The recovery of the argon products from the air separation unit is adjusted by varying the percentages of dirty shelf nitrogen and clean shelf nitrogen in the reflux stream directed to the lower pressure column. The cryogenic air separation unit and associated method also provides an efficient argon production/rejection process that minimizes the power consumption when the cryogenic air separation unit is operating in a ‘no-argon’ or ‘low-argon’ mode yet maintains the capability to produce higher volumes of argon products at full design capacity to meet argon product demands.

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.