Integrated adsorption/cryogenic distillation process for the separation of an air feed

An integrated adsorption/cryogenic distillation process is set forth for the separation of an air feed. The air feed is passed through a vacuum swing adsorption (VSA) unit to remove impurities comprising water and carbon dioxide which will freeze out at cryogenic temperatures. The VSA sequence inclu...

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Bibliographische Detailangaben
Hauptverfasser:	KLEINBERG, WILLIAM T, KUMAR, RAVI
Format:	Patent
Sprache:	eng
Schlagworte:	BLASTING CAPTURE, STORAGE, SEQUESTRATION OR DISPOSAL OF GREENHOUSEGASES [GHG] COMBINED HEATING AND REFRIGERATION SYSTEMS GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS HEAT PUMP SYSTEMS HEATING LIGHTING LIQUEFACTION SOLIDIFICATION OF GASES LIQUEFACTION, SOLIDIFICATION OR SEPARATION OF GASES OR GASEOUS MANUFACTURE OR STORAGE OF ICE MECHANICAL ENGINEERING MIXTURES BY PRESSURE AND COLD TREATMENT PERFORMING OPERATIONS PHYSICAL OR CHEMICAL PROCESSES OR APPARATUS IN GENERAL REFRIGERATION OR COOLING SEPARATION TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ARTCOLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINSTCLIMATE CHANGE TRANSPORTING WEAPONS
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Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:	An integrated adsorption/cryogenic distillation process is set forth for the separation of an air feed. The air feed is passed through a vacuum swing adsorption (VSA) unit to remove impurities comprising water and carbon dioxide which will freeze out at cryogenic temperatures. The VSA sequence includes an adsorbent regeneration step whereby the impurity-saturated adsorbent is purged under vacuum with a purge gas. The resulting impurity-depleted air feed is fed to a cryogenic distillation column for rectification into a gaseous nitrogen overhead and a liquid oxygen bottoms. A waste stream from the distillation column is expanded, warmed against the impurity-depleted air feed to recover its refrigeration and subsequently recycled as the purge gas to the VSA unit. A key to the present invention is that the waste stream is expanded to the required sub-ambient pressure level in the cryogenic portion of the process. This enables one to recover all of the available refrigeration from the cryogenic waste stream prior to using such waste stream as the purge gas for the adsorption portion of the process.