Abstract: An apparatus and method for air distillation. Two cold boxes and an air treatment unit are used to distill air. The cold boxes contain a heat exchanger for cooling the air to be distilled and an air distillation unit for producing either oxygen, nitrogen or argon. The air treatment unit has many individual treatment elements which are connected in parallel. The outlet of the air treatment unit is connected to both cold boxes and to all the individual treatment units.

Abstract: The air distillation unit (2) has a low-pressure column (11C) which operates clearly above atmospheric pressure. The waste nitrogen coming from this column serves to purge, under low pressure, the air purification adsorbers (10A, 10B) in order to desorb them of the contaminants (water and CO2), then is mixed with the impure nitrogen stream sent directly to the nitrogen compressor (14) which feeds the combustion chamber (8) of the gas turbine (1). At the start of regeneration, each adsorber is decompressed down to atmospheric pressure, then brought back up to the low pressure by impure nitrogen.

Abstract: This plant comprises N (N>1) air distillation units (1) in parallel, each one of which comprises a main air compressor (3) driven by a steam turbine (4); an air distillation apparatus (8) producing liquid oxygen and/or liquid nitrogen; at least one pump (9) for pumping liquid oxygen and/or liquid nitrogen to a high production pressure; and a cycle compressor (10) adapted to compress part of a cycle fluid. Each cycle compressor (10) is driven by an electric motor (11), and an (N+1)th steam turbine (12) drives an alternator (13) supplying the electric motors (11) with electric current. Application to supplying units (2) for producing synthetic hydrocarbons with high-pressure oxygen.

Abstract: This plant comprises N (N>1) air distillation units (1) in parallel, each one of which comprises a main air compressor (3) driven by a steam turbine (4); an air distillation apparatus (8) producing liquid oxygen and/or liquid nitrogen; at least one pump (9) for pumping liquid oxygen and/or liquid nitrogen to a high production pressure; and a cycle compressor (10) adapted to compress part of a cycle fluid.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an air separation plant integrated with another process. Work is recovered from a nitrogen enriched stream produced by an air separation process either by expanding the nitrogen enriched stream directly or by combustion of the nitrogen enriched stream with a fuel stream and expanding gas produced by the combustion.

Abstract: The air distillation unit (2) has a low-pressure column (11C) which operates clearly above atmospheric pressure. The waste nitrogen coming from this column serves to purge, under low pressure, the air purification adsorbers 10A, 10B) in order to desorb at them of the contaminants (water and CO2), then is mixed with the impure nitrogen stream sent directly to the nitrogen compressor (14) which feeds the combustion chamber (8) of the gas turbine (1). At the start of regeneration, each adsorber is decompressed down to atmospheric pressure, then brought back up to the low pressure by means of impure nitrogen.