Technical gas fractionation requires fine and high-precision temperature control in the different stages of the process, to allow the separate extraction of each element contained in the air. The gases extracted are mainly oxygen, nitrogen and argon, technical gases that are used in a wide variety of industrial processes.
For each element, the transition from liquid to gaseous state occurs at different and specific temperatures and pressures. Compressors and refrigeration units are used to cool the air until it liquefies. Therefore, by acting on the temperature and pressure levels it is possible to proceed with the separation of the different gases.
Brazed heat exchangers and condensers are used to regulate the temperature in the fractional distillation process, which exploits the different liquefaction temperatures of the different gases, for energy recovery allowing the heat transfer between the final product exiting the distillation column and the incoming one. It is therefore possible to further increase the energy efficiency of the fractionation process, by exploiting the recovered thermal energy to pre-heat the incoming gas.
Examples of applications for technical gas fractionation:
Cooling towers on technical gas production plant.
Plate heat exchanger applied on air compressor.
Brazed heat exchanger on nitrogen production plant.
Welded exchangers on cryogenic plant.
