Air Separation
Air separation involves recovery of Oxygen, Nitrogen and Argon from the air.For this the gaseous air is to be converted into Liquid air. This is achieved by cooling the gaseous air till it converts to the liquid phase. Then Distillation Unit process is used. Due to difference in Boiling points of the individual components, i.e Oxygen -183.6 deg C, Nitrogen - 195 deg C & Argon - 186 deg.C the separation occurs.
Atmospheric air which is God given free is the Raw material. The other raw material is Power as all Air separation plants are very power intensive. There are small plants, very small Plants & huge plants called Tonnage plants.
Linde, BOC, Innox, Praxair are the leading people in this market. They are worldwide and have several Plants.In India the plants vary from very small to huge. The largest in India is 5000 tons per day.
Usage of oxygen, nitrogen & argon is very much in different industries. Some of the usage is in Steel , Aerospace , Food, Fisheries,etc.
It is a very important item in industry and lot of dependence is there on Industrial development.
In brief the process consists of the following steps.1. Filtration 2.Compression 3.PrePurification Adsorbers. 4. Cooling 5.Distillation 6. Storage. 7. Transfer to Consumer.
Filtration helps to remove the Dust in the atmosphere.
Compression helps to push or drive the air to go through the process.
Cooling helps to convert the gaseous air state to liquid air state to enable the next step.
Distillation involve normally two different Columns and in this the liquid aair is distilled so as to separate the components of the liquid air due to difference of Boiling points of Oxygen, argon and Nitrogen.
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