With the continuous development of air separation plant manufacturing technology and the popularization and application of new equipment and process, the process of air separation plant has become increasingly mature and gradually reached the international level. The large-scale air separation plant is bound to bring a high increase in energy consumption. Energy saving and consumption reduction of air separation plant through advanced technology and equipment has become an important means for large-scale air separation users to reduce the operating costs of air separation plants and improve economic benefits.
The following is a brief introduction of energy saving measures for each system of air separation plant:
1.The air cooling columnand water cooling columnuse Bauer ring packing to carry the heat transfer carrier of air, waste nitrogen and cooling water, which has the characteristics of large flux, low resistance, high separation efficiency and high operation flexibility. In the water cooling column, the cooling capacity of recovered waste nitrogen is fully utilized to reduce the temperature of chilled water before entering the chiller, thus reducing the power load of the chiller.
2.In large-scale air separation plant, the vertical radial flow type is usually used in the adsorption device of purification system, which can effectively reduce the air flow resistance and floor area. Compared with the conventional adsorber, the air flow resistance of the vertical radial flow adsorber can be reduced by 1.5kpa, and the exhaust pressure of the air compressor can be reduced by 4.51kpa. Compared with the conventional adsorbent, the high efficiency molecular sieve adsorbent can save 5% energy consumption in the regeneration stage. Air separation users with low-pressure steam can also choose steam heater instead of electric heater. If saturated steam pressure is not enough, series electric heater can be used to make full use of steam energy to save electric energy.
3.Regular packing is used in the upper and lower columns of the fractionator system. The structured packing has the characteristics of high separation efficiency, and can change the working conditions under large load. The gas flow resistance is generally about 5kpa.
4.Liquid oxygen self pressurization process is one of the most widely used process forms in external compression air separation plant, which is more energy-saving than conventional external compression process.
