#101, 4th Phase, Kempanna garden, Near 9th BTS Bus Depot,

Peenya Industrial Estate, Bangalore -560058.

Ph:+91-80-28364436; +91-80-28367336: Mob:+91-9845850150.
E-mail: info@oxyplants.com ; oxyplants@yahoo.co.in
website;www.oxyplants.com

I. GENERAL BASIC PRINCIPALS.

Atmospheric air is used to produce Oxygen and Nitrogen, in most Industrial Processes.

Atmospheric air mainly contains the following elements:-

Element Percentage Boiling point at

Composition By atmospheric Pressure.
volume
Nitrogen (N2) 78.03% - 195.50C
Oxygen (O2) 22.99% - 183.70C
Argon (Ar) 0.9323% - 185.50C
Carbon Dioxide(Co2) 0.03% - 78.50C

The other Constituents of air are Hydrogen and rare gases, such as, Neon, Helium,
Krypton and Xenon in traces.

The major impurity is dust particles. Moisture will be present as per atmospheric
conditions.

Air is Composed Principally of Oxygen and Nitrogen and its physical properties lie
between the Two But closer to those of Nitrogen. in its normal atmospheric condition.
Air is a colorless odorless gas.

Air which is normally in gaseous state can be liquefied, as steam from gaseous state can
be condensed to form water in liquid state.

Air is liquefied in our process by expansion in an Expansion Engine and in a Joule

Thompson Expansion Valve. As we use an Expansion Engine, the air is to be compressed
only to a medium Pressure of 40kgs/ Cm² (600 PSIG) whereas other processes need
about 200kgs/ Cm² air pressure.

Expansion Engine is a single acting reciprocating engine with inlet and outlet valves, set
to open at a particular time intervals of stroke cycle. Thus, air entering expansion
engine through inlet valve with a high pressure is expanded during the downward
stroke of Piston. The expanded air will be drawn out through the outlet valve during
upward stroke of piston. During such expansion, air gets cooled.
The expanded air from Expansion Engine and Expansion Valve will enter the lower part
of Distillation Column. This air will mostly be liquid.

Distillation is an Operation of separating two Components having two different boiling

points. Thus at a particular temperature in between the two boiling points, one
component will be Volatile (Thus Vapour) and the other component will be liquid. Thus,
the component which is more volatile can be drawn out of a distillation column as
Vapour .The

Component which is less volatile can be drawn out as liquid. Oxygen and Nitrogen have
difference of about 130C. In boiling points and therefore can be separated in a
distillation column. Nitrogen will be drawn out as Vapour. Oxygen will be collected as
liquid and can be pumped up to 150kgs/ Cm² by a Liquid Oxygen pump.

II. PROCESS DESCRIPTION

Air is drawn from atmosphere through Suction Air Filter where dust particles are
removed. The air should not be drawn from a location near an Acetylene Gas Plant.

The air is then compressed in Compressor to a pressure of 45kgs/Cm² during the start
up and to a pressure of 40kgs/Cm² during the normal running of A.S.U. The air
compressor used for 100m3/hr plant is four-stage compressor. The air Compressor has
Intercoolers between the stages and after cooler after the final stage. Please refer
Compressor manual for efficient Operation and maintenance of the air compressor.

The air from the compressor then passes through the moisture separator where the
moisture condensed in the after cooler is separated. This is drained once on an hour.

The air then enters an evaporation cooler also known as cascade cooler where it gets
cooled about 200C. This cooler is an elliptical vessel having two compartments. In each
compartments, there is a pipe coil that is interconnected. The coils are half submerged
in water in the vessel. Dry nitrogen bubbles through this water and gets moisturized. As
the water vaporizes it requires latent heat, which is absorbed from water itself. So
water gets cooled. Thus, the airs in the pipe also get cooled.

The air from this evaporation cooler passes in to the chilling coil tank which is having
chilled water at a temperature of 60⁰C to 100⁰C. This chilling of water is done with the
help of chilling unit. In the chilling tank coil the moisture entrapped in the air further
gets condensed which is separated In the moisture from the moisture separator is
drained once in an hour.

The separation of moisture is carried out in different stages so that the air entering in
the molecular Sieve has minimum moisture level, and better adsorption of CO₂. Can take
place in the molecular sieve battery.
The air will than pass through an oil separator pack with Activated Carbon. Here the oil
Vapour carried over from Air compressor will be removed. If this oil Vapour is not
removed sufficiently, due to high temperature of process air, the oil Vapour will damage
the molecular sieves. To obtain a long life of Molecular Sieve ensures that carbon fitter
is well maintained.

The Air then enters one of the Molecular Sieve vessels. The moisture and Carbon
Dioxide in the air will be removed in this drier. If they are not removed before entry to
Cold Box, they will form ice and dry ice, which will choke the Heat Exchanger Tubes and
other equipments. There are two driers. One will be (on line with the process air) in
Operation for 8 hours and the other will be under regeneration. Regeneration will be
done as heating and cooling by out-going Nitrogen. An electric regeneration gas heater
is used for regeneration.

The dry air is again filtered in a Ceramic filter. Before entry to cold Box to avoid any
dust entry to Cold Box. The compressed air, cooled to about 100C.with out moisture and
carbon dioxide will enter the Cold Box it initially passes through a Heat Exchanger No.1
a multi pass coil type heat exchanger. The outgoing Oxygen will cool the incoming air
and Nitrogen .The air will be cooled to -1000C.In this heat exchanger.

The air will then be bifurcated in to two streams. The main air stream will enter
expansion Engine at 40kgs. /Cm² and will be expanded to 5kgs/ Cm² and - 1500⁰C. The
rest of the air will pass through heat exchanger No.2 to be cooled to about - 1550⁰C by
the outgoing Oxygen and Nitrogen. This air will then be expanded by an expansion
Valve R1 to form liquid air. Both the air streams will now enter bottom portion of the
Lower Column.

As the air enters the lower Column, after the expansion engine, and after Air Expansion
Valve R1, a part of this air condenses in to liquid and falls at the bottom of the Column.
This liquid is about 40% Oxygen and 60% Nitrogen and usually called the “Rich Liquid”.

A part of the air in this Column evaporates and rises to the top of the Column touching
the Condenser, which is cooler than the lower Column. As this air touches the
Condenser, it condenses in to a liquid on top of the lower Column. This liquid is
generally 99% Nitrogen and being poor in Oxygen, it is called “poor Liquid”.

Final separation of the 2 fractions is achieved in the Upper Column. Both the poor
Liquid and the Rich Liquid are carried in to the Upper Column by two Expansion Valves
and the pressure, drops from 4.5kgs/ Cm² in the lower column to 0.5 kgs/ Cm² in the
upper column. This rich Liquid enters the middle of the Upper Column and as it flows
down, Nitrogen evaporates and Oxygen continues as Liquid. The liquid Nitrogen (poor
Liquid) enters the top of the column and as it flows down the column, It comes in
contact with any evaporating oxygen and condenses the same in to a liquid, while the
Nitrogen itself becomes a gas as it more Volatile. This process takes place in each tray.
The entire gaseous Nitrogen is piped out from the top of the column through the Heat
Exchangers.

Similarly the liquid Oxygen at the bottom of the column is carried away to a Liquid
Oxygen Pump from which it is compressed and again passed through the Heat
Exchangers in to the Gas Cylinders. as the liquid Oxygen travels through the Heat
exchangers. It evaporates in to gaseous Oxygen Filling the Cylinder with gas and giving
up its cold to the incoming air.

The Plant operation should be such that it is not too cold or too warm. If the cold box is
too Cold, the Nitrogen will condense in to liquid Oxygen and purity will fall.

If the plant is too warm Oxygen will evaporate with Nitrogen, and the quantity of
Oxygen Produced will go down substantially and the waste Nitrogen will carry more
and more Oxygen. To obtain optimum result of plant, therefore, checks the purity of the
waste Nitrogen which should not fall below 90%.

When the plant works continuously for a few months, it tends to accumulate carbon
Dioxide and moisture in its internal parts. These are to be removed once on about four
months. For Details, refer chapter on Defrosting of plant.

Similarly, the L.O. Pump alone can defrost in case of trouble I Pumping.

It is advised to give Carbon tetra chloride wash to Cold Box equipment once in two
years to ensure protection against Hydro Carbon contamination.

Before starting plant, it is generally defrosted and blow out. Then the cooling/starting is
done which will take about 8 hours. When the plant is stopped for short intervals, the
plant need not be defrosted, but all the cold line Valves are to be closed to prevent
outside moisture from entering the Cold Box.