What Is an Air Separation Plant? Essay

Submitted By OmaimaA

Words: 430

Pages: 2

Open Document

An air separation plant is an industrial facility that separates naturally occurring air, or atmospheric air, into its component gases. The gases harvested in the process include oxygen, nitrogen, and argon, as well as some inert gases such as neon, xenon, and krypton. Since nitrogen and oxygen are the two most common gases in the earth's atmosphere, these two elements make up the bulk of the gases harvested in this process.

The process employed in an air separation plant is called cryogenic distillation. By cooling the atmospheric air to extremely low temperatures, the component gases can be separated and harvested. Liquid forms of nitrogen or oxygen may also be harvested at some plants.

The cryogenic distillation process is a four step procedure. In the first step, atmospheric air is cleaned and compressed to a pressure range of 5 to 10 bars (4-9 atmospheres). The cleaning process removes dust and contaminants that could interfere with the cooling process. The compression process heats the air to remove traces of moisture before passing the compressed air to a heat exchanger for cooling.

When the compressed air has been cooled, the next step is purification. This process involves passing the air through a molecular sieve, which filters the air by a process called adsorption. In this process, gases or molecules are attracted to an adsorbent surface and form a layer on top of the adsorbent material. The molecular sieves are designed to remove carbon dioxide, water, and hydrocarbon gases.

After the air is purified, it can safely be passed to the cooling and distillation chamber. The cooling chamber consists of a heat exchanger and cryogenic streams. When the air is passed through this chamber, it reaches sufficiently low temperatures to enable

Essay on Energy Assessment

materials needed, the products and a balanced chemical equation for this process. Photosynthesis is a process where light energy emitted by the sun is absorbed and trapped by the chlorophyll in the leaves of plants and is used to transform water and carbon dioxide into glucose and oxygen. All green plants go through the process of photosynthesis as it is their source of life of all organisms. Without this process, no organism on earth will be able to harness and utilize the sun’s energy, leading to everything…

Words 3303 - Pages 14

Silver Carp Research Paper

late 1970’s. There are many different issues that the predatory Asian carp posses to the water source, primarily the Great Lakes. The different issues that the carp fish hold are that they eliminate food for other species, the excrete up to half of what they eat, emit toxins into the water, populate twice as fast as other species, and they eliminate the recreation activities for people. Due to these issues affecting the ecosystems, people have initiated acts to help with reducing the number of carp…

Words 1095 - Pages 5

Saving The World Essay

Entrepreneurial Idea at a Time… What would happen if governments incentivized entrepreneurs to fix the world’s problems? Could we tackle climate change meaningfully, without the need for stricter regulation? What thought paradigms need to shift in order to actually create the technology that will allow us to capture carbon emissions and neutralize the carbon footprint, not just in the Unites States, but create a technology that could be implemented cost effectively around the world? What would that tech look…

Words 4128 - Pages 17

Essay on Biology Notes

cell membrane. * Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER) Rough –Makes ribosomes with ribosome particles. Transports. * Endoplasmic Reticulum(ER) Soft - Transports material. Connected to nucleus. * Lysosome – Dump of cell, holds waste, digusts it. Plant cells use vacuoles instead of this. * Centrsomes/Centriole – Heads to ends of cells during mitosis/cytokenesis. Makes spindle fibres. * Cell Wall – Like a tough, strong cell membrane, protecting the cell membrane. * Chloroplasts – Uses…

Words 2229 - Pages 9

Essay on atoms and elements

cool use line graphs and choose appropriate scales for eg time, temperature or mass data. distinguish between elements, compounds and mixtures in terms of the particles they contain name and describe some common mixtures and use knowledge about separation techniques to suggest how they might be separated identify melting and boiling points as the fixed temperatures at which elements and compounds change state and use the particle model to explain changes of state know mixtures do not change state…

Words 1100 - Pages 5

Unit 7 Essay

AP Biology Unit 7 Study Guide Ch 36 – Transport in Plants p. 748- 761 Ch 38 – Flowering plants, p. 783-4, 788- 94 Ch 39 – Plant responses to internal & external signals Ch 40 – Animal Form and Function p. 839-47, Ch 44 p. 925-35 Ch 45 – The endocrine system p. 955- 72 Ch 36 – Transport in Plants p. 748- 761 1. Describe how is water transported across plant cells, addressing the following: selective permeability, proton pumps, water potential, aquaporins Selective permeability – allow specific…

Words 5198 - Pages 21

Biodiesel Formal Lab Report Essay example

For an alkali-catalyzed transesterification, the reactants glyceride and alcohol must be substantially anhydrous because the presence of water leads to formation of soap from saponification. Soap lowers yield of esters and causes difficulties for separation and purification of the resulting esters. Besides, low free fatty acids content in oils is required in alkali-catalyzed transesterification processes. In acid-catalyzed processes, though water and free fatty acid are allowed in the feed, however…

Words 1971 - Pages 8

Cell and Surface Area Essay

organisms in pondwater * 1831 - ROBERT BROWN observed the nucleus in plant and animal cells * 1839 - Schleiden and Schwann formulated the cell theory that all living things are made up of cells. Schwann was the first scientist to see yeast cells producing new cells * 1858 - Virchow stated: "where a cell exists, there must have been a pre-existing cell, just as the animal only arises from an animals and the plant only from a plant." * 1880 - Walter Flemming described cell division (mitosis)…

Words 5219 - Pages 21

World Religion Essay

Buddhism Karma is described as a karmic memory trace, we think first then we act. We will be analyzing the current ecological landscape through a Karmic lens, as sustainers of the planet we are obligated to respond to the changes in the air, water, earth, plants, and animals, with increasing globalization and large scale agricultural changes our society is facing an environmental crisis. This issue is pervasive among numerous countries from South East Asia to Europe and as far as the Americas, pollution…

Words 1540 - Pages 7

Dimensional Fund Advisors Essay

work, accuracy and compliance with standards and regulations. Seeking contracts within organisations that desire a thorough drawing checker and highly experienced designer capable of component selection, and design and detail of a wide variety of plant and equipment; harnessing a wealth of knowledge and expertise to achieve realistic targets and reduce manufacturing costs. □ Demonstrated success and hands-on involvement in challenging projects, with expertise extending to: checking of drawings;…

Words 1797 - Pages 8