When the amount of processing air increases, it will increase the rising steam in the distillation tower, and the amount of liquid required to condense in the main cooling system will also increase accordingly, so it has no effect on the reflux ratio inside the tower. Within a certain range of increased air volume, the purity of oxygen and nitrogen can remain basically unchanged, while the production will increase proportionally with the increase of air volume.
However, as the amount of condensed liquid in the main cooler increases, the heat load of the main cooler increases. When the heat transfer area is insufficient, the temperature difference of the main cooling system will inevitably expand, and the pressure of the lower tower will correspondingly increase. At the same time, due to the increase in airflow velocity inside the tower, the amount of downflow liquid increases, and the liquid layer on the tray thickens, which increases the resistance of the tray and correspondingly increases the pressure of the upper and lower towers. This will have adverse effects on the separation of oxygen and nitrogen, while also increasing power consumption. When the gas volume is too large, the resistance of the tray and the resistance of the downstream liquid flowing through the overflow bucket will increase significantly, causing the liquid level in the overflow bucket to rise, and even causing liquid flooding that cannot flow down. This will disrupt the normal working conditions of the distillation tower.
In addition, due to the increase in rising steam flow rate, it is easy to carry liquid droplets to the previous tray, affecting the distillation effect, reducing nitrogen purity, and thus lowering the oxygen extraction rate.
A typical air separation tower can operate normally by increasing the air volume by about 20%, and no measures need to be taken. When the processing air volume is too large, it is necessary to increase the aperture of the sieve holes on the tray to reduce the steam velocity. Increase the heat transfer area of the main cooling system to reduce the temperature difference between the main cooling system and ensure the normal operation of the distillation tower.
DEAR Air Force has multiple engineering and technical leaders with strong research and development capabilities, high technical level, and rich experience in engineering practice, as well as a team of skilled technical workers capable of undertaking engineering testing tasks.
