Patents by Inventor Remy Kurtz

Remy Kurtz has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20240035746
    Abstract: An enclosure for a column for low-temperature distillation comprises a distillation column, which has a circular cross section and is to be thermally insulated, the column containing liquid during use, at least one pipe attached to the column for transporting a liquid, a parallelepipedal casing enclosing the column in a sealed manner, pulverulent thermal insulation filling the space between the column or columns and the casing, a liquid-retaining tank, which has a flat bottom and four side walls, defining a liquid-retaining space, the tank being arranged inside the casing below the column in order to collect liquid that has leaked from the column, the tank being made from stainless steel or from aluminium and the casing being made from carbon steel, the column resting on the bottom of the tank through a skirt, the skirt being a cylinder made from stainless steel and having the same diameter as the column, the liquid-retaining space containing pulverulent thermal insulation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 28, 2023
    Publication date: February 1, 2024
    Applicant: L'Air Liquide, Societe Anonyme pour l'Etude et l’Exploitation des Procedes Georges Claude
    Inventors: Dominique LE LARGE, Remy KURTZ
  • Publication number: 20230358467
    Abstract: An air separation unit using cryogenic distillation comprises a first column, a second column thermally linked to the first column, a first argon column, a second argon column, means for sending cooled, compressed and purified air to at least the first column, means for sending at least one fluid enriched in nitrogen from the first column to the second column and at least one fluid enriched in oxygen from the first column to the second column, means for sending a gas enriched in argon from the second column to a first end of the first argon column, means for sending gas from a second end of the first argon column to a first end of the second argon column, means for removing argon rich fluid from a second end of the second argon column, a pump, means for removing argon enriched liquid from the first end of the second argon column and sending it to the second end of the first argon column via the pump, the first end of the first argon column being raised above the ground by a first supporting structure, the pum
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 13, 2023
    Publication date: November 9, 2023
    Applicant: L'Air Liquide, Societe Anonyme pour l'Etude et l’Exploitation des Procedes Georges Claude
    Inventors: Remy KURTZ, Patrice CAVAGNE, Delphine VALLIER
  • Patent number: 11740015
    Abstract: An air separation unit using cryogenic distillation comprises a first column, a second column thermally linked to the first column, a first argon column, a second argon column, means for sending cooled, compressed and purified air to at least the first column, means for sending at least one fluid enriched in nitrogen from the first column to the second column and at least one fluid enriched in oxygen from the first column to the second column, means for sending a gas enriched in argon from the second column to a first end of the first argon column, means for sending gas from a second end of the first argon column to a first end of the second argon column, means for removing argon rich fluid from a second end of the second argon column, a pump, means for removing argon enriched liquid from the first end of the second argon column and sending it to the second end of the first argon column via the pump, the first end of the first argon column being raised above the ground by a first supporting structure, the pum
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2023
    Assignee: L'Air Liquide, Societe Anonyme Pour L'Etude Et L'Exploitation Des Procedes Georges Claude
    Inventors: Remy Kurtz, Patrice Cavagne, Delphine Vallier
  • Patent number: 11709018
    Abstract: A cryogenic air separation setup in a cold box, wherein gaseous oxygen under elevated pressure is produced through hydraulic force caused by the geodetic distance between where liquid oxygen is drawn from the distillation column and where liquid oxygen is vaporized to form gaseous oxygen, such as in an auxiliary evaporator. To increase the vertical distance between the above-mentioned two location, the components are arranged directly below one another in the following sequence: the lower-pressure column, the main condenser evaporator, the higher-pressure column, the subcooler, the main heat exchanger and the auxiliary evaporator). In particular, the main heat-exchanger is positioned with the cold-end on the top to optimize piping expenditure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 25, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 25, 2023
    Assignee: L'Air Liquide, Societe Anonyme Pour L'Etude Et L'Expoitation Des Procedes Georges Claude
    Inventors: Alain Briglia, Remy Kurtz, Eric Day, Huali Xie, Baptiste Fara
  • Publication number: 20220373256
    Abstract: A distillation column is constituted by a cylindrical shell which contains mass and heat transfer elements and which is closed at one end by a cap and at the other end by a domed bottom and a cylindrical skirt that has the same diameter as the cylindrical shell, is aligned coaxially with the cylindrical shell and is fixed to one end of the cylindrical shell so as to surround the domed bottom, forming a space between the bottom, the walls of the skirt and a base, the skirt comprising at least one opening to allow the passage of a flushing gas.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 11, 2022
    Publication date: November 24, 2022
    Applicant: L'Air Liquide, Societe Anonyme pour l'Etude et l?Exploitation des Procedes Georges Claude
    Inventors: Remy KURTZ, Arnaud FAVRE
  • Publication number: 20220323800
    Abstract: Protective barrier for an item of industrial equipment that is traversed by and/or processes a combustible fluid or oxygen, having four vertical walls forming four sides of a parallelepiped, these walls being attached to a base so as to define a rectangular-section space that is intended to contain the industrial equipment arranged on the base, the four vertical walls having a height of at least 2.4 m and having at least one partial roof attached to at least one of the vertical walls, having a surface parallel to the base and extending over the space, the surface area of the partial roof or the surface area of each of the partial roofs being equal to at most 50% of the surface area corresponding to the rectangular section.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 7, 2022
    Publication date: October 13, 2022
    Inventors: Arnaud FAVRE, Remy Kurtz
  • Patent number: 11441841
    Abstract: A heat exchanger assembly and a method for assembling the heat exchanger assembly is provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 13, 2022
    Assignee: L'Air Liquide, Societe Anonyme Pour L'Etude Et L'Exploitation des Procedes Georges Claude
    Inventor: Remy Kurtz
  • Patent number: 11428466
    Abstract: Disclosed in the present invention are a cold box steel structure and method for prefabricating and transporting the cold box steel structure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2022
    Assignee: L'Air Liquide, Societe Anonyme Pour L'Etude Et L'Exploitation Des Procedes Georges Claude
    Inventors: Remy Kurtz, Lasad Jaouani, Vincent Gueret
  • Publication number: 20220205716
    Abstract: An enclosure suitable for thermally insulating at least one distillation column comprising an elongate parallelepipedal framework and at least one part of a distillation column inside the framework, the enclosure or at least the lower part of the enclosure serving as support for the lifting means for installing elements in the column or for adding another part of the section of the column to that part of the column that is present in the enclosure or for adding another part of the enclosure.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 17, 2021
    Publication date: June 30, 2022
    Applicant: L'Air Liquide, Societe Anonyme pour l'Etude et l?Exploitation des Procedes Georges Claude
    Inventors: Alain BRIGLIA, Remy KURTZ
  • Patent number: 11079177
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a skid-mounted cold box and its prefabricated structure and assembly method. Each prefabricated structure includes a framework and a first panel that is used to enclose sides of the framework. Ring beams of two adjacent prefabricated structures are connected through bolts on site. A second panel connected through bolts encloses the gap between ring beams of the two adjacent prefabricated structures from sides. The present invention cancels all field welding seams and omits the field welding and nondestructive testing operations. The crane can be dismissed after the upper prefabricated structure of the cold box is lifted into place and bolts corresponding to columns on ring beams are connected. The present invention guarantees the connection strength of steel structures relying on bolt-based connection between ring beams and the second panel connected through bolts guarantees the airtightness of the cold box. This effectively reduces field assembly work and saves time and cost.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 3, 2021
    Assignee: L'Air Liquide Societe Anonyme Pour L'Etude Et L'Exploitation Des Procedes Georges Claude
    Inventors: Chenxi Gao, Remy Kurtz, Alain Briglia, Jia Ding
  • Publication number: 20210140709
    Abstract: An air separation unit using cryogenic distillation comprises a first column, a second column thermally linked to the first column, a first argon column, a second argon column, means for sending cooled, compressed and purified air to at least the first column, means for sending at least one fluid enriched in nitrogen from the first column to the second column and at least one fluid enriched in oxygen from the first column to the second column, means for sending a gas enriched in argon from the second column to a first end of the first argon column, means for sending gas from a second end of the first argon column to a first end of the second argon column, means for removing argon rich fluid from a second end of the second argon column, a pump, means for removing argon enriched liquid from the first end of the second argon column and sending it to the second end of the first argon column via the pump, the first end of the first argon column being raised above the ground by a first supporting structure, the pum
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 26, 2018
    Publication date: May 13, 2021
    Applicant: L'Air Liquide, Societe Anonyme pour l'Etude et l?Exploitation des Procedes Georges Claude
    Inventors: Remy KURTZ, Patrice CAVAGNE, Delphine VALLIER
  • Patent number: 10969167
    Abstract: An apparatus for the distillation of air by cryogenic distillation is provided. The apparatus can include an enclosure; a first distillation column configured to operate at a first pressure; a second distillation column configured to operate at a second pressure that is lower than the first pressure, the second distillation column being placed above the first distillation column and forming therewith a double column; a subcooling heat exchanger configured to cool at least one liquid from the first distillation column upstream of the second distillation column and configured to warm a gaseous nitrogen stream from the second distillation column; and an argon column configured to separate an argon enriched stream from the second distillation column and configured to produce an argon rich stream.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 17, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 6, 2021
    Assignee: L'Air Liquide Société Anonyme Pour L'Etude Et L'Exploitation Des Procedes Georges Claude
    Inventors: Patrice Cavagne, Remy Kurtz
  • Publication number: 20210063085
    Abstract: A cryogenic air separation setup in a cold box, wherein gaseous oxygen under elevated pressure is produced through hydraulic force caused by the geodetic distance between where liquid oxygen is drawn from the distillation column and where liquid oxygen is vaporized to form gaseous oxygen, such as in an auxiliary evaporator. To increase the vertical distance between the above-mentioned two location, the components are arranged directly below one another in the following sequence: the lower-pressure column, the main condenser evaporator, the higher-pressure column, the subcooler, the main heat exchanger and the auxiliary evaporator).
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 25, 2017
    Publication date: March 4, 2021
    Applicant: L'Air Liquide, Societe Anonyme pour l'Etude et l?Exploitation des Procedes Georges Claude
    Inventors: Alain BRIGLIA, Remy KURTZ, Eric DAY, Huali XIE, Baptiste FARA
  • Publication number: 20200208912
    Abstract: Disclosed in the present invention are a heat exchanger assembly and a method for assembling the heat exchanger assembly.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 21, 2019
    Publication date: July 2, 2020
    Applicant: L'Air Liquide, Societe Anonyme pour l'Etude et l?Exploitation des Procedes Georges Claude
    Inventor: Remy KURTZ
  • Publication number: 20200191478
    Abstract: Disclosed in the present invention are a cold box steel structure and method for prefabricating and transporting the cold box steel structure.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 17, 2019
    Publication date: June 18, 2020
    Applicant: L'Air Liquide, Societe Anonyme pour l'Etude et l?Exploitation des Procedes Georges Claude
    Inventors: Remy KURTZ, Lasad JAOUANI, Vincent GUERET
  • Publication number: 20200132368
    Abstract: An apparatus for the distillation of air by cryogenic distillation is provided. The apparatus can include an enclosure; a first distillation column configured to operate at a first pressure; a second distillation column configured to operate at a second pressure that is lower than the first pressure, the second distillation column being placed above the first distillation column and forming therewith a double column; a subcooling heat exchanger configured to cool at least one liquid from the first distillation column upstream of the second distillation column and configured to warm a gaseous nitrogen stream from the second distillation column; and an argon column configured to separate an argon enriched stream from the second distillation column and configured to produce an argon rich stream.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 17, 2019
    Publication date: April 30, 2020
    Applicant: L'Air Liquide, Societe Anonyme pour l'Etude et l'Exploitation des Procedes Georges Claude
    Inventors: Patrice CAVAGNE, Remy KURTZ
  • Publication number: 20200056840
    Abstract: Disclosed are a cold box structure with cold box panels partly built-in and an installation method therefor. The cold box structure is mainly applied to plate-fin heat exchangers, and in particular to high-pressure aluminum plate-fin heat exchangers. The cold box structure comprises a base, a cold box support frame, four cold box panels, and a cold box top plate, and a plate-fin heat exchanger is placed inside the cold box. Some of or all the four cold box panels can be placed inside the cold box support frame as needed. The cold box structure can protect the cold box support frame from being damaged by cryogenic steam ejected from the plate fin-heat exchanger due to leakage, and further enables the discovering of leakage situations of the plate-fin heat exchanger from outer surfaces of the cold box panels in a timely manner.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 3, 2017
    Publication date: February 20, 2020
    Applicant: L'Air Liquide, Societe Anonyme pour I'Etude et I'Exploitation des Procedes Georges Claude
    Inventors: Alain BRIGLIA, Remy KURTZ
  • Publication number: 20190353422
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a skid-mounted cold box and its prefabricated structure and assembly method. Each prefabricated structure includes a framework and a first panel that is used to enclose sides of the framework. Ring beams of two adjacent prefabricated structures are connected through bolts on site. A second panel connected through bolts encloses the gap between ring beams of the two adjacent prefabricated structures from sides. The present invention cancels all field welding seams and omits the field welding and nondestructive testing operations. The crane can be dismissed after the upper prefabricated structure of the cold box is lifted into place and bolts corresponding to columns on ring beams are connected. The present invention guarantees the connection strength of steel structures relying on bolt-based connection between ring beams and the second panel connected through bolts guarantees the airtightness of the cold box. This effectively reduces field assembly work and saves time and cost.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 30, 2016
    Publication date: November 21, 2019
    Applicant: L'Air Liquide, Societe Anonyme pour I'Etude et I'Exploitation des Precedes Georges Claude
    Inventors: Chenxi GAO, Remy KURTZ, Alain BRiGLIA, Jia DING
  • Publication number: 20130087314
    Abstract: A heat exchanger unit includes at least two heat exchangers of the plate fin type that are substantially identical cuboids offset from each other. The heat exchangers are linked to at least one single distribution conduit and at least one single collection conduit. At least one first heat exchanger is situated on one side relative to the axis of the single distribution conduit and at least one second heat exchanger is situated on the other side relative to the axis of the single distribution conduit. A first face of the first heat exchanger is parallel to the nearest face of the second heat exchanger, but offset in the direction of the axis of the single distribution conduit. Each heat exchanger is fluidly connected to the face proximate to the distribution conduit, the offset being such that the each fluid connection does not contact one another.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 18, 2010
    Publication date: April 11, 2013
    Applicant: L'AIR LIQUIDE SOCIETE ANONYME POUR L'ETUDE ET L'EX
    Inventors: Lasad Jaouani, Remy Kurtz, Gregoire Nollet