Method and system for providing auxiliary refrigeration to an air separation plant

Abstract

A method and system for cryogenic air separation that employs both a primary refrigeration circuit and an auxiliary refrigeration circuit is provided. The auxiliary refrigeration circuit is configured in a manner that it can be easily tied-in or modified to an existing air separation plant.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]The present invention relates to a method and system for cryogenic air separation involving production of liquid products by using an integrated refrigeration system comprising a primary refrigeration circuit and an auxiliary refrigeration circuit. More particularly, the present invention relates to an auxiliary refrigeration circuit that can be easily tied-in to an existing cryogenic air separation plant and its existing refrigeration system.BACKGROUND[0002]Oxygen, nitrogen and argon are separated from air through cryogenic rectification in an air separation plant. Typically, gaseous and / or liquid products are produced for on-site customers or pipeline customers, with any excess products often converted to merchant liquid products for nearby customers. For some cryogenic air separation plants, the on-site or pipeline customer demand for gaseous products, such as gaseous oxygen or gaseous nitrogen, may decrease over time either on a long-term basis or per...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention is about a method and system for separating air in an air separation unit. The method involves compressing and purifying a feed air stream, diverting a portion of the compressed and purified feed air stream to a main heat exchanger to cool it, and then using a booster air compression circuit to compress and direct the cooled air stream to the higher pressure column of the distillation column system. The system includes an air compression and purification train, a primary refrigeration circuit, a booster air compression circuit, an auxiliary refrigeration circuit, and a distillation column system. The technical effects of the invention include improved efficiency and reduced energy consumption in the air separation process.

Problems solved by technology

To satisfy the lower gaseous product requirements, the cryogenic air separation plant may be operated so as to vent some of the unneeded gaseous product which is economically inefficient as such venting ultimately wastes the power / energy costs used to produce the vented gaseous products.

Such additional turbine-based refrigeration systems involve additional capital costs and are often not optimized or fully integrated with the main source of refrigeration for a cryogenic air separation plant.

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