Analysis of Losses in High-Purity Neon Production Technology. Part 1. Extraction of a Ne–He Mixture as a By-Product of Air Separation

Inert gases are in great demand by industry. Neon is produced as a by-product of air-separation plants in the form of a crude Ne–He mixture. Downstream Ne production technology includes several stages accomplished in separate installations. The Ne extraction coefficient and specific energy consumption per product unit were adopted as criteria for assessing the efficiency of plants in downstream Ne production technology. The primary enrichment stage of a Ne–He concentrate in rectification columns of air-separation plants was studied in the present work. The research showed that this stage had a characteristically low extraction coefficient of < 0.7.