air separation and energy use 1

[loside]

There may be a better forum for this question but I am uncertain which it would be...
I am interested to get a general breakdown of the energy required/used for industrial air separation plants. A little more specifically, how much electricity is used to get the rare gas Krypton? I think it is true that the rare gases are generally "made" as a by-product of the oxygen separation process. If so, then how much electricity is used to get oxygen and then how much additional electricity is needed to get Krypton?
Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

 

[davefitz]

see below link for a primer on current conventional technology for air seperation( psa pressure swing absorption and cryogenic distillation). Other sources would be airproducts ,linde and air liquide(quebec)

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http://www.uigi.com/cryodist.html>

newer techniques being developed for coal gasification involves hi temp membranes, not yet commercial. All of these use many times more than the min energy predicted by thermodynamics, based on entropy generation.

 

[davefitz]

as indicated in the attached link, kypton ( heavy molecular wt noble gas) can be more economically removed from ammonia plant purge gas than from cryo plants.

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http://www.uigi.com/rare_gases.html>

 

[dcasto]

http://www.cchequipment.com/

Here is a air plant for sale, you can see the equipment and production.