This invention discloses an ultra-high purity
oxygen air separation system and a
process improvement method, belonging to the field of
air separation technology. The
system includes an
air compressor, a
heat exchanger, a subcooler, a high-pressure
distillation column, a crude
argon column, a high-purity
oxygen column, and connecting pipelines. The high-pressure
distillation column includes a lower column, an upper column, and a condenser-
evaporator A. The high-purity
oxygen column contains a condenser-
evaporator B. The oxygen-enriched
liquid air obtained from the bottom of the lower column is directly fed into the condenser-
evaporator B in the high-purity oxygen column as a heat source. After heat exchange, it enters the condenser of the crude
argon column, making the condenser-evaporator B simultaneously the hot end of the subcooler. This invention also discloses a
process improvement method based on this
system, including preliminary separation of the
raw material air, heat exchange between the upper and lower columns, extraction and crude separation of the
argon fraction, and using the oxygen-enriched
liquid air as a heat source for the high-purity oxygen column to achieve
subcooling. This invention integrates the functions of the independently set subcooler hot end and the high-purity oxygen column evaporator in the traditional process, eliminating the need for the subcooler hot end equipment and related pipelines, reducing equipment investment costs and cold box design complexity, while improving the
recovery rate of oxygen and argon.