In the production of metallurgical industry, large and medium-sized air separation equipment is the core supporting equipment for steelmaking and ironmaking processes. The reasonable selection of process scheme directly determines the project investment cost, operation energy consumption and production stability. Metallurgical working conditions have the characteristics of large gas load, stable pressure and high requirements for continuity. The mainstream is divided into two processes: external compression and internal compression.
For medium and small-scale metallurgical air separation projects, when the gas output is less than 8000nm ³/h and the demand for liquid products is low, the external compression process is preferred. The process has the advantages of simple structure, small number of equipment, low initial investment and low operation and maintenance threshold, which is suitable for the conventional gas demand of small and medium-sized steel plants, convenient maintenance and low load production conditions.
For large metallurgical complex, it is recommended to adopt full low pressure internal compression process. Relying on the liquid oxygen pump in the cold box to complete the pressurization and avoid the potential safety hazards of the external oxygen compressor, the equipment has higher safety. At the same time, the process has high gas extraction rate and low energy consumption, and can stably produce liquid oxygen, liquid argon and other by-products, which is suitable for long-term high load continuous production.
The selection of enterprises should be based on the comprehensive consideration of capacity scale, gas pressure, liquid production and site conditions, taking into account the initial investment and long-term operation cost, and the optimal air separation process suitable for metallurgical conditions should be customized to achieve efficient, energy-saving, stable and safe production.
