| Class / Patent application number | Description | Number of patent applications / Date published |
|---|
| 062648000 | Downstream operation | 30 |
| 20080264101 | Process and Apparatus for Nitrogen Production - A process and apparatus for producing nitrogen by which product nitrogen can be efficiently supplied. The nitrogen producing process comprises: a first separation step in which feed air is distilled at a low temperature; a first indirect heat exchange step in which a first nitrogen gas and a first oxygen-enriched liquefied fluid which have been separated in the first separation step are subjected to indirect heat exchange to obtain a first liquefied nitrogen and a first oxygen-enriched gas fluid; a second separation step in which the first oxygen-enriched gas fluid is distilled at a low temperature; a second indirect heat exchange step in which a second nitrogen gas and a second oxygen-enriched liquefied fluid which have been separated in the second separation step are subjected to indirect heat exchange to obtain a second liquefied nitrogen and a second oxygen-enriched gas fluid; a cold generating step in which the second oxygen-enriched gas fluid is adiabatically expanded to generate cold; a first product recovery step in which part of the first nitrogen gas is discharged as a first product nitrogen gas; and a second product recovery step in which part of the second nitrogen gas is discharged as a second product nitrogen gas after the cold is recovered. | 10-30-2008 |
| 20090107177 | PROCESS AND DEVICE FOR LOW TEMPERATURE AIR FRACTIONATION - The process and the device serve for low temperature air fractionation in a distillation column system for obtaining nitrogen which has a single column ( | 04-30-2009 |
| 20090320520 | NITROGEN LIQUEFIER RETROFIT FOR AN AIR SEPARATION PLANT - A method is disclosed for increasing liquid production involving retrofitting an existing air separation plant with a nitrogen liquefier. The nitrogen liquefier liquefies a nitrogen-rich vapor stream withdrawn from the higher pressure column to return a nitrogen-rich liquid stream to the higher pressure column. This increases liquid nitrogen reflux to the higher pressure column to in turn increase the production of liquid oxygen containing column bottoms of the higher pressure column and therefore, the production of oxygen-rich liquid in the lower pressure column. The increased production of the oxygen-rich liquid allows a liquid oxygen product to be taken at an increased rate or for the liquid oxygen product to be taken in the first instance, if the plant is not designed to produce such a product. Also liquid nitrogen and argon products can be produced at an increased rate as a result of the retrofit. | 12-31-2009 |
| 20100011811 | Method And Device For Separating A Gas Mixture By Cryogenic Distillation - The invention relates to a cryogenic distillation apparatus for a gas mixture, including a purification apparatus for purifying a gas mixture in a system with a plurality of adsorbant bottles, a column system, a capacity, means for feeding a cryogenic liquid to the capacity, means for feeding a vaporized liquid from the capacity to a column of the system, a vaporizer in the capacity for vaporizing the contained liquid; means for feeding a calorigenic gas to the vaporizer, and means for drawing a liquid from the capacity. | 01-21-2010 |
| 20110083470 | OXYGEN VAPORIZATION METHOD AND SYSTEM - A method and system for producing an oxygen product stream in which sensible heat from a compressed air stream is indirectly exchanged with a vaporized pumped liquid oxygen stream in a main heat exchanger and latent heat is exchanged in an auxiliary heat exchanger connected to the main heat exchanger. The latent heat exchange produces subcooled liquid air that is fed into a low pressure column of the air separation plant and vaporization of the pumped liquid. Part of the subcooled liquid air can be withdrawn from the auxiliary heat exchanger at a higher temperature than the remainder of the subcooled liquid air. All or part of the subcooled liquid air can be further cooled within the main heat exchanger. As a result, low temperature, subcooled liquid air is produced that allows for an increased oxygen recovery and also, argon recovery if an argon column is present. | 04-14-2011 |
| 20110126585 | KRYPTON XENON RECOVERY FROM PIPELINE OXYGEN - A method and apparatus for producing a krypton-xenon-rich stream in which a pipeline oxygen stream is removed from an oxygen pipeline at ambient temperature and then distilled in a cryogenic rectification plant to produce the krypton-xenon-rich stream from a column bottoms of a distillation column. The plant can generate its own refrigeration by way of a heat pump loop incorporating an expander or, alternatively, refrigeration can be added by means of a liquid oxygen reflux stream introduced into the top of such distillation column. | 06-02-2011 |
| 20130139548 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING PRESSURIZED OXYGEN BY LOW-TEMPERATURE SEPARATION OF AIR - The invention relates to a method and apparatus for producing pressurized oxygen by low-temperature separation of air in a distillation column system having a low-pressure column and a high-pressure column. All of the feed air is compressed to a first air pressure, at least 4 bar above the operating pressure of the high-pressure column. A first partial stream of the feed air, compressed to the first air pressure, is further compressed in a secondary compressor to a second higher air pressure, before being (pseudo-)liquefied and is introduced into the distillation system. A second partial stream of the feed air, compressed to the first air pressure, is cooled and depressurized in an expander, which drives the secondary compressor. A return stream is branched off from the (pseudo-)liquefied first partial stream, depressurized, heated and then introduced to the first partial stream upstream from the secondary compressor. | 06-06-2013 |
| 20130239609 | KRYPTON XENON RECOVERY FROM PIPELINE OXYGEN - A method and apparatus for producing a krypton-xenon-rich stream in which a pipeline oxygen stream is removed from an oxygen pipeline at ambient temperature and then distilled in a cryogenic rectification plant to produce the krypton-xenon-rich stream from a column bottoms of a distillation column. The plant can generate its own refrigeration by way of a heat pump loop incorporating an expander or, alternatively, refrigeration can be added by means of a liquid oxygen reflux stream introduced into the top of such distillation column. | 09-19-2013 |
| 20140165650 | HEAT EXCHANGER AND DISTILLATION COLUMN ARRANGEMENT - A shell and tube heat exchanger and distillation column arrangement for an air separation plant utilizing such heat exchanger in which tubes for passage of a liquid that is used in condensing a vapor are located within a cylindrical shell. The tubes are arranged in an inner array of tubes and an outer array of tubes surrounding the inner array of tubes and having more tubes than the inner array. The inner array of tubes present a larger average area, between tubes, for flow of the vapor in an outward, radial direction than tubes of the outer array to lessen pressure drop while allowing for more tubes to be located within the shell to increase the surface area available for heat exchange between the liquid and the vapor. | 06-19-2014 |
| 20160003539 | ARGON CONDENSATION SYSTEM AND METHOD - An argon reflux condensation system and method in which a plurality of once-through condensers are connected to an argon column of an air separation plant to condense argon-rich vapor streams for production of reflux to the argon column. Condensation of the argon-rich vapor streams is brought about through indirect heat exchange with crude liquid oxygen streams that partially vaporize and are introduced into a lower pressure column of the plant for further refinement. The flow rate of the crude liquid oxygen streams are sensed and controlled at locations in the air separation plant where the crude liquid oxygen is in a liquid state and in proportion to the size of the once-through heat exchangers. Prior to flowing into the once-through condensers, the partially vaporized crude oxygen stream enters a phase separator which separates the crude oxygen vapor from the crude liquid oxygen. The separated crude oxygen vapor bypasses the once-through condensers and is mixed with the vaporized oxygen stream that exits the one-through condensers. Feed stream flow rate to the argon column is controlled in response to air flow rate to the plant and product flow rate is controlled in response to the feed stream flow rate to the argon column. | 01-07-2016 |
| 20160123663 | AIR SEPARATION METHOD - A cryogenic air separation method and apparatus in which first and second liquid streams are produced. The first liquid stream has a higher oxygen content than air and can consist of a higher pressure distillation column bottoms and the second liquid stream, for instance, air, has a lower oxygen content than the first liquid stream and an argon content no less than the air. The second liquid stream is subcooled through indirect heat exchange with the first liquid stream and both of such streams are introduced into the lower pressure column. The second liquid stream is introduced into the lower pressure column above that point at which the crude liquid oxygen column bottoms or any portion thereof is introduced into the lower pressure column to increase a liquid to vapor ratio below the introduction of the second liquid stream and therefore, reduce the oxygen present within the column overhead. | 05-05-2016 |
| 062649000 | Flowline expansion engine | 15 |
| 20130000352 | AIR SEPARATION UNIT AND SYSTEMS INCORPORATING THE SAME - A system comprising an air separation unit (ASU) is provided. The ASU is configured to produce liquid nitrogen and pressurize to higher pressure using a pump. ASU may be further configured to produce liquid oxygen that can be directly pressurized to be used in required applications. System may further include oxy-fuel combustion system, integrated gas turbines and integrated enhanced oil and/or gas recovery units. Methods of operating the system included. | 01-03-2013 |
| 062650000 | High pressure nitrogen | 5 |
| 20080216512 | Air separation process utilizing refrigeration extracted from LNG for production of liquid oxygen - A cryogenic air separation process is set forth wherein, in order to provide the refrigeration necessary when at least a portion of the oxygen product is desired as liquid oxygen, LNG-derived refrigeration is used to liquefy a nitrogen stream in the process. A key to the present invention is that, instead of feeding the liquefied nitrogen to the distillation column, the liquefied nitrogen is heat exchanged against the air feed to the distillation column system. | 09-11-2008 |
| 20130205831 | Method and device for obtaining compressed oxygen and compressed nitrogen by the low-temperature separation of air - The invention relates to a method and device for obtaining compressed oxygen and compressed nitrogen by the low-temperature separation of air in a distillation column system for nitrogen-oxygen separation, said distillation column system having at least one high-pressure column ( | 08-15-2013 |
| 20160003531 | METHOD AND DEVICE FOR GENERATING GASEOUS COMPRESSED NITROGEN - Method and device for generating gaseous compressed nitrogen by the low-temperature separation of air in a distillation column system, having a pre-column, a high-pressure column and a low-pressure column. The feed air is compressed, purified in a purification apparatus and cooled. A first sub-flow of the cooled feed air is introduced in a predominantly liquid state into the distillation column system. A gaseous fraction from the pre-column in introduced into the liquefaction chamber of a pre-column head condenser with liquid formed therein fed as reflux into the pre-column. A first gaseous nitrogen product fraction is drawn from the high-pressure column, heated, and obtained as first gaseous compressed nitrogen product. At least a part of the second sub-flow is introduced into the evaporation chamber of the pre-column head condenser. A third sub-flow of the cooled feed air is expanded to perform work and subsequently introduced into the liquefaction chamber. | 01-07-2016 |
| 20160161181 | METHOD AND DEVICE FOR PRODUCING COMPRESSED NITROGEN - A method and a device that serve for producing compressed nitrogen by low-temperature decomposition of air in a distillation column system which has a high-pressure column, a low-pressure column, a high-pressure column head condenser and a low-pressure column head condenser. A main air compressor constitutes the only gas compressor powered by external energy. An internally compressed nitrogen stream is formed by a part-stream of the liquid nitrogen stream from the high-pressure column head condenser and/or a part-stream of the liquid nitrogen stream from the low-pressure column head condenser; the internally compressed nitrogen stream is brought in the liquid state to a product pressure which is between 15 and 100 bars; then the internally compressed nitrogen stream is heated in the main heat exchanger and then extracted as a gaseous compressed nitrogen product below the product pressure. | 06-09-2016 |
| 20180023890 | Method And Apparatus For Obtaining A Compressed Nitrogen Product | 01-25-2018 |
| 062651000 | Low pressure nitrogen | 3 |
| 20080289362 | PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR LOW-TEMPERATURE AIR FRACTIONATION - The process and the apparatus are used for low-temperature air fractionation. Input air ( | 11-27-2008 |
| 20090120129 | CRYOGENIC VARIABLE LIQUID PRODUCTION METHOD - A method of producing a liquid product stream, for example, a liquid nitrogen product stream, at a production rate that is selectively varied. This variation is produced in either a waste expansion or air expansion process by increasing the pressure and flow rate of the feed stream during periods in which a high rate of liquid production is desired without substantially increasing the pressure of the exhaust stream produced by a variable speed turboexpander. This increases the expansion ratio across the turboexpander and therefore the refrigeration supplied to increase liquid production. At the same time, the increase in flow rate prevents a decrease in the performance of the variable speed turboexpander. | 05-14-2009 |
| 20160109180 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR PRODUCING LOW-TEMPERATURE COMPRESSED GAS OR LIQUEFIED GAS - An apparatus and a method for cooling and compressing a fluid to produce a low-temperature compressed fluid that can efficiently use the cold of LNG and reduce the energy needed, the apparatus using a Rankine cycle system having a first compression device, a first heat exchanger, an expansion device, a second heat exchanger, and a first flow passageway for guiding the heat transfer medium from the second heat exchanger to the first compression device; and at least one second compression device that is coupled to the expansion device, wherein at the second heat exchanger, a low-temperature LNG and the heat transfer medium undergo heat transfer, wherein at the first heat exchanger, a fed material gas and the heat transfer medium undergo heat transfer to produce a low-temperature fluid from the material gas, and the low-temperature fluid is compressed at the second compression device to produce a low-temperature compressed fluid. | 04-21-2016 |
| 062652000 | Oxygen | 6 |
| 20090071191 | CRYOGENIC AIR SEPARATION PROCESS WITH EXCESS TURBINE REFRIGERATION - A process for carrying out cryogenic air separation wherein liquid oxygen is pressurized and vaporized against condensing feed air to produce oxygen gas product wherein excess plant refrigeration is generated such that the aggregate warm end temperature difference of the process exceeds the minimum internal temperature difference of the primary heat exchanger by at least 2 K. | 03-19-2009 |
| 20100071412 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING HIGH PURITY OXYGEN - A method and apparatus of producing high purity oxygen in connection with low purity liquid oxygen produced by a plurality of cryogenic air separation plants. The low purity liquid oxygen from the air separation plants is introduced into a distillation column of an auxiliary cryogenic rectification plant that is reboiled by nitrogen also produced by such the air separation plants. Nitrogen is separated from the low purity liquid oxygen to produce high purity liquid oxygen from residual liquid located in a bottom region of the distillation column that can be taken as a product. Optionally, an argon column can be connected to the distillation column to produce a liquid argon product stream. | 03-25-2010 |
| 20100313600 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PRESSURIZED PRODUCT PRODUCTION - The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for producing a pressurized product stream product by cryogenic rectification. A main heat exchanger, used in the cryogenic rectification, warms a pumped product stream composed of oxygen-rich or nitrogen-rich liquid and thereby produces the pressurized product stream. Layers of the main heat exchanger are designed such that a reduction in the heat transfer area provided within the main heat exchanger for warming the pumped product stream occurs at a location at which the temperature of the pumped product stream exceeds either the critical or a dew point temperature of such stream. The reduction in heat transfer area leaves regions of the layers able to heat or cool another stream that is used in connection with the cryogenic rectification. Such other stream can be a refrigerant stream that allows the introduction of additional refrigeration to increase production of liquid products. | 12-16-2010 |
| 20110067445 | Method And Apparatus For Separating Air By Cryogenic Distillation - A method and to an apparatus for producing oxygen by separating air using cryogenic distillation is presented. | 03-24-2011 |
| 20130192301 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR AIR SEPARATION USING A SUPPLEMENTAL REFRIGERATION CYCLE - A system and method for air separation using a supplemental refrigeration cycle is provided. A portion of the refrigeration required by the air separation plant to produce a liquid product stream is supplied via a supplemental refrigeration circuit configured to direct a cooled refrigerant produced by the turboexpander through the main heat exchanger of the air separation plant. The refrigeration capacity is controlled by removing or adding a portion of the refrigerant in the supplemental refrigeration circuit to adjust the inlet pressure while maintaining a substantially constant volumetric flow rate and substantially constant pressure ratio across the compressor. Removing the refrigerant from the supplemental refrigeration circuit decreases the refrigeration imparted by the supplemental refrigeration circuit and thus decreases the production of the liquid product stream. Adding refrigerant allows for an increase in the refrigeration imparted by the supplemental refrigeration circuit and thus allows for increased production of the liquid product stream. | 08-01-2013 |
| 20160003536 | METHOD AND DEVICE FOR PRODUCING GASEOUS COMPRESSED OXYGEN HAVING VARIABLE POWER CONSUMPTION - Variable production of compressed oxygen by means of low-temperature separation of air in a distillation column system having a high-pressure column and a low-pressure column. In a first operating mode, a first total air quantity is cooled in the main heat exchanger, and a first turbine amount is fed to the expansion to perform work. In a second operating mode, a second oxygen stream from an external source outside the distillation column system is introduced into the low-pressure column in a liquid state. There is less total air cooled in the main heat exchanger, and less air is fed to the expansion to perform work than in the first, operating mode. | 01-07-2016 |
| 062653000 | Flowline pump | 4 |
| 20100043490 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SEPARATING AIR - Air separation method in which air is separated within cryogenic rectification processes conducted in first and second cryogenic air separation plants. The first cryogenic air separation plant is designed to produce an oxygen-rich product stream and the second cryogenic air separation plant is designed to produce an impure oxygen vapor stream. At least part of the impure oxygen vapor stream is introduced into a lower pressure column of the first cryogenic air separation plant and oxygen contained in such stream along with air separated within the first air separation plant is used in producing the oxygen-rich product stream. | 02-25-2010 |
| 062654000 | Liquid oxygen | 3 |
| 20100192629 | OXYGEN PRODUCT PRODUCTION METHOD - The present invention relates to a method of producing an oxygen product by heating a pumped liquid oxygen stream within a heat exchanger through indirect heat exchange with compressed air. The liquid oxygen stream is pressurized to an oxygen pressure in a range above about 55 bar(a) and no greater than about 150 bar(a) and heated within the heat exchanger to form a supercritical fluid. The air is compressed to an air pressure upon entering the heat exchanger that is a function of the oxygen pressure that will result in a minimum power being expended in the compression of the air. The heat exchanger can be a brazed fin heat exchanger fabricated from aluminum in which the fins located in heat exchange passages have an undulating configuration to increase the flow path length and induce flow separation and thereby increase the heat transfer coefficient within the heat exchanger. | 08-05-2010 |
| 20160069611 | METHOD FOR OBTAINING AN AIR PRODUCT IN AN AIR SEPARATING SYSTEM WITH TEMPORARY STORAGE, AND AIR SEPARATING SYSTEM - A method for obtaining an air product in an air separating system in which a liquid fraction is obtained from feed air and used to provide the air product and in which the liquid fraction is temporarily stored in a tank arrangement. A tank arrangement with at least two tanks is used, and the liquid fraction is fed to at least one of the tanks and/or is removed from at least one of the tanks in order to provide the air product. In the process, the liquid fraction is not fed to and removed from any one of the tanks at the same time, and the composition of the liquid fraction in a tank is ascertained prior to each removal of the liquid fraction from the tank. An air separating system is also described. | 03-10-2016 |
| 20160161180 | OXYGEN BACKUP METHOD AND SYSTEM - A method and backup system for backing up a supply oxygen in an air separation plant in which during normal operation, a stream of oxygen-rich liquid is pumped through a main flow path, extending from a surge tank to a heat exchanger, to deliver an oxygen product. The surge tank receives the oxygen-rich liquid from a bottom region of the lower pressure column of the plant. Additionally, during normal operations, a stream of the oxygen-rich liquid is also introduced to a reserve storage tank through a backup flow path. During a transient operation, where the air separation plant has ceased operation, the surge tank is isolated and liquid is pumped from the surge tank through an auxiliary flow path to an auxiliary vaporizer to continue the supply of the oxygen product and the surge tank is replenished with oxygen-rich liquid previously stored in the reserve storage tank. | 06-09-2016 |
