Cryogenic Air Separation Plant Nm3/h KDON-350/900 Process Gas Liquid Nitrogen Oxygen Gas

Specifications:

    The standard products for the Cryogenic Air Separation Plant KDON – 50~500 series

Typical Product:    KDON-350/900 Cryogenic Air Separation Plant

Output, purity and pressure

Description:

      What is air and what is air separation?

      Air is a mixture of gases, consisting primarily of nitrogen (78 %), oxygen (21 %) and the inert gas argon (0.9 %). The remaining 0.1 % is made up mostly of carbon dioxide and the inert gases neon, helium, krypton and xenon. Air can be separated into its components by means of distillation in special units. So-called air fractionating plants employ a thermal process known as cryogenic rectification to separate the individual components from one another in order to produce high-purity nitrogen, oxygen and argon in liquid and gaseous form.

Compression of air
Ambient air is drawn in, filtered and compressed to approx. 6 bar by a compressor.

Precooling of air
To separate air into its components, it must first be liquefied at an extremely low temperature. As a first step, the compressed air is precooled with chilled water.

Purification of air
Impurities such as water vapour and carbon dioxide are then removed from the air in a so-called molecular sieve.

Cooling of air
Because the gases which make up air only liquefy at very low temperatures, the purified air in the main heat exchanger is cooled to approx. -175°C. The cooling is achieved by means of internal heat exchange, in which the flows of cold gas generated during the process cool the compressed air. Rapid reduction of the pressure then causes the compressed air to cool further, whereby it undergoes partial liquefaction. Now the air is ready for the separating column, where the actual separation takes place.