Abstract: The present invention relates to a process for producing high purity xenon safely at a high yield from liquid oxygen in a main condenser of an air separating unit.The present invention involves a process for concentrating and recovering xenon by gasifying and introducing liquid oxygen led out from the main condenser in the air separating unit into an adsorption column field with an adsorbent which adsorbs xenon for adsorption and desorption, and a process for rectifying and recovering xenon by introducing concentrated xenon gas into a solid-gas separating column, which is cooled to a temperature at which xenon is solidified but components other than xenon such as oxygen and krypton in the concentrated xenon gas are not solidified to, catch xenon by condensation, then heating the solid-gas separating column after evacuating gas components remained therein.

Abstract: This invention provides a manufacturing process which produces highly purified Xenon economically and safely with high recovery efficiency. In this invention liquid oxygen containing Xenon, which is vented from the main condenser in the upper rectification column of the air separating unit, is sequentially fed into multiple adsorptive columns filled with an adsorbent to selectively adsorb the Xenon. By a sequence of adsorbing-desorbing steps, Xenon is gradually condensed and, at the final state, highly purified Xenon is recovered. Hydrocarbons (CmHn) are removed from the product gas by a catalytic process. Xenon at a purity as high as 99.995% and at a yield as high as 95% is obtained by use of the present process.