OXYGEN PLANT [CRYOGENIC] AIR SEPARATION METHOD

Air is a mixture of gases, consisting primarily of Nitrogen (78%), Oxygen (21%) and inert gas argon (0.9%). The remaining 0.1% is made up mostly of Carbon dioxide and inert gases such as Helium (He), Krypton (Kr), Xenon (Xe) and Neon (Ne) and other gases like Hydrogen (H2), Carbon Monoxide (CO), Carbon dioxide (CO2) and Nitrous Oxide (N2O), Chlorine (Cl2), Hydrogen Chloride (HCl) and Sulphur Dioxide (SO2), Acetylene (C2H2), Methane (CH4) and Propane (C3H8). In addition, there are many different mixtures of these and other gases to meet the needs of specific applications. 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 to produce high purity Nitrogen, Oxygen and Argon in liquid and gaseous form.

Industrial gases are gaseous materials that are manufactured for use in Industry. The principal gases provided are nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, argon, hydrogen, helium and acetylene, although a huge variety of gases and mixtures are available in gas cylinders. The industry producing these gases is known as the industrial gases industry, which is seen as also encompassing the supply of equipment and technology to produce and use the gases. Their production is a part of the wider chemical Industry (where industrial gases are often seen as “specialty chemicals”).

Industrial gases are used in a wide range of industries, which include oil and gas, petrochemicals, chemicals, power, mining, steelmaking, metals, environmental protection, medicine, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, food, water, fertilizers, nuclear power, electronics, and aerospace. Industrial gas is sold to other industrial enterprises; typically comprising large orders to corporate industrial clients, covering a size range from building a process facility or pipeline down to cylinder gas supply.

Some trade scale business is done, typically through tied local agents who are supplied wholesale. This business covers the sale or hire of gas cylinders and associated equipment to tradesmen and occasionally the public. This includes products such as balloon helium, dispensing gases for beer kegs, welding gases and welding equipment, LPG and medical oxygen.

Retail sales of small-scale gas supply are not confined to just the industrial gas companies or their agents. A wide variety of hand-carried small gas containers, which may be called cylinders, bottles, cartridges, capsules, or canisters are available to supply LPG, butane, propane, carbon dioxide or nitrous oxide. Examples are Whipped-cream chargers, powerlets, campingaz and sodastream.

The great importance of the industrial gas, oxygen is due to the usefulness of the acetylene torch for steel welding and steel cutting, and for the welding of other metals, to lesser degree to the oxyhydrogen flame. Oxygen gas in the breathing apparatus for a visitor at high altitudes and for oxygen tents in hospitals is a high altitudes and for oxygen tents in hospitals is a more recent development. An extension of the use of oxygen lies in the increased intensity and speed of reactions brought about by oxygen enriched air instead of ordinary air; the reduction of the cycle time so achieved in chemical or metallurgical process permits a greater yield per volume of equipment and brings about lower costs. Oxygen as a raw material for synthesizing chemical compounds is in daily use (ethylene oxide, sodium peroxide). Liquid oxygen mixed with carbon black may yet become an important and cheap explosive.

On the commercial scale, oxygen is made from atmospheric air small production by the electrolysis of water is the result of special circumstances.