Air Separation Plant

Technology	Capabilities	Plant Design
Buyer's Guide	Uses

Air separation plants are gas plants producing different varieties of gases by the process of air separation. Air separation plants produce the atmospheric industrial gases like oxygen, nitrogen, argon, helium, methane using air and electrical power as raw materials.

Air Separation Technology
Though there are differences in process details displaying desired product mix and other factors, all air separation plants make use one of the following two types of process technology:

• Cryogenic plants: The air separation technique used in cryogenic plants produce gas and liquid products (liquid oxygen, liquid nitrogen etc.) using very low temperature distillation which separates air components and produce desired product purities.
  
  
• Non-cryogenic plants: The air separation technique used in non cryogenic plants produce gaseous products with near-ambient temperature separation processes. They use differences in properties like molecular structure, size and mass to produce oxygen or nitrogen.

All manufacturers and suppliers involved with air separation plants deal with the design, fabrication, and construction of both cryogenic and non-cryogenic air separation plants. The main focus of the market in today's scenario is to supply independent operators of air separation systems with design, engineering, and operations support. In some cases this involve actual project work, and in some other it means providing design, engineering and supervision.

Capabilities of Air Separation Plants
Plant types offered by air separation plants include:

• Oxygen non cryogenic plant
• Oxygen cryogenic plant
• Nitrogen PSA plant
• Nitrogen cryogenic plant
• Modular liquid and gaseous cryogenic/non cryogenic nitrogen generators
• Modular liquid and gaseous cryogenic/non cryogenic oxygen generators
• Large gaseous cryogenic nitrogen generators/ oxygen generators
• Liquid plants producing liquid oxygen, nitrogen and argon

Air Separation Plant Design
The basic elements considered in the design of an air separation plant are:

• Air Pretreatment
• Air Compression
• Refrigeration
• Distillation

Besides that argon purification and/or product compression are also required. Air pretreatment systems make use of either temperature swing or pressure swing adsorption technologies and usually efficient in dealing with any environmental condition.

Buyer's Guide:Specifications of Air Separation Plants

Standard Type	Main Products	Sec. Products	Applications
Oxygen / Nitrogen Gas Generating Plant	Oxygen gas / 99.6% Nitrogen gas / 99.9999%	Liquid nitrogen, liquid oxygen, argon, neon, krypton, xenon	Iron works, chemical, partial oxidation
Low Pressure Liquid Oxygen /Liquid Nitrogen Generating Plant	Liquid Oxygen / 99.8% Liquid nitrogen / 99.9999%	Argon	Industrial gas sales
High Purity Pressurized Nitrogen Generating Plant	Nitrogen gas / 99.9999%	Liquid nitrogen	Chemical, petroleum, textiles, electronics industry

Uses of Air Separation Plants

Steel Industries Non-steel Metal Industries Electronics Power Generating Industries Chemical &Petrochemical Semiconductor Industries Oil & Gas Food & Beverage Metals

Welding Industries Mining Glass Pulp & Paper Industrial gas Environmental Medical Refrigeration