Environmental conditions are important factors affecting stable operation and performance of air separation equipment, mainly including ambient temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure and air quality. Changes in environmental conditions will be transmitted to various systems of equipment through air inlet link, causing performance chain reaction and affecting production capacity, product purity and energy consumption.
The atmospheric pressure fluctuates significantly, usually around 0.1MPa. The decrease of the pressure will increase the compression ratio of the air compressor. For each 0.01MPa decrease, the compression ratio will increase by 6% - 8%, resulting in the increase of energy consumption. Meanwhile, the air density will decrease, the exhaust volume and oxygen output of the air compressor will decrease, and the unit power consumption for oxygen production will increase. This effect is further aggravated by an indirect decrease in atmospheric pressure due to an increase in altitude.
The increase of ambient temperature will lead to the decrease of air density, decrease of air compressor exhaust volume and increase of shaft power. The shaft power will increase by about 1% for each 3 ℃ increase of temperature; At the same time, the exhaust temperature rises, the cooling loss of the equipment increases, more refrigeration capacity is required to balance, and the energy consumption is further improved. Although the low temperature environment can increase the air intake, it may cause condensation and icing of the pipeline and affect the normal operation of the equipment.
When the air humidity increases, part of the power of the air compressor will be consumed on the compressed water vapor, increasing the shaft power, increasing the purification load of the molecular sieve absorber and shortening the adsorption period. The increase of impurities such as COdust in the air will block the equipment passage, damage the parts, increase the burden of the purification system and endanger the equipment safety in serious cases.
Small changes in environmental conditions will have an interlocking impact on the performance of air separation equipment. In actual operation, the operating parameters shall be optimized according to environmental changes to ensure efficient, safe and stable operation of equipment.
