Nitrogen, oxygen and argon have many applications in industry. Like, gaseous nitrogen (GAN) is used as raw material or inert gas, while liquid nitrogen (LIN) is used for refrigeration. Oxygen has a variety of uses in steelmaking and other metal refining and manufacturing processes, in chemicals, pharmaceuticals, petroleum processing, glass and ceramic manufacturing, and pulp and paper. It is also used for environmental protection in municipal and industrial wastewater treatment plants and facilities. Like nitrogen, the inert gas argon is used because of its low reactivity, which provides greater inertness than nitrogen as well as lower thermal conductivity and improved solubility in water and oil. Additionally, argon is more common and more cost-effective than the noble gases helium, neon, krypton and xenon. Nitrogen, oxygen and argon are almost completely separated and recovered from the atmosphere.
A Cryogenic Air Separation Unit (ASU) is a process unit in which air is separated into its component gases by cryogenic distillation.The plant includes a range of equipment such as distillation columns, heat exchangers, adsorbers and ancillary machinery for compressing, expanding and controlling gases and liquids. Component gases are sold and distributed to customers upon request for a variety of industrial, medical and other professional applications. Air Separation Plants are constructed differently depending on the product produced and the customer's capacity and purity requirements. In addition, process equipment and machinery from various manufacturers are used upon request. However, the basic principles of how all these different plants are constructed and operated are pretty much the same.
The design of a cryogenic air separation plants depends on the scale of operation and the properties of the desired product. While the basic principles are always the same, each plant's process cycles and processes can vary widely depending on requirements. The air separation plants employs a series of different process cycles to meet specific customer requirements, and the plant capacity has been expanded to produce more than 2,300 tons of oxygen per day, along with nitrogen and argon, and sometimes krypton and xenon. Industrial gases can only be transported over economically feasible distances, and because these distances are limited by the cost of transport and the physical properties of the gas, production facilities are located close to the markets they serve. For higher value products (eg, argon, helium, specialty gases), it may be economically feasible to locate the plant some distance from the customer. Typically, air separation sites are located close to large tonnage customers such as steel plants, chemical plants, petrochemical plants, oil refineries and smelters so that the gas can be supplied directly to the customer through pipelines. Low temperature air separation equipment products The product names are LOX liquid oxygen, LIN liquid nitrogen, LAR liquid argon, GOX gaseous oxygen and GAN gaseous nitrogen.
