G0601-1-1 Design of Cryogenic Air Separation Process Based on Self-Heat Recuperation

Abstract

An innovative cryogenic air separation based on self-heat recuperation to reduce the energy consumption is proposed. In the proposed process, the heat of process streams is recuperated and exchanged with the process streams themselves by using the self-heat recuperation technology. As a result, not only latent heat but also sensible heat of the process stream are circulated in the process and the pressure of the column can be decreased compared with the high pressure part of the conventional cryogenic air separation in which high and low pressure columns are combined to exchange nitrogen latent heat with oxygen latent heat. Thus, the energy input of the main compressor which is located in front of the column can be drastically reduced. The simulation result demonstrates that the energy consumption for the proposed cryogenic air separation based on self-heat recuperation is more than 36% decreased as compared with the conventional cryogenic air separation.