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Startup of An Air Separation Plant

This document outlines the general startup procedure for an air separation plant that produces liquid oxygen, nitrogen, and argon. The procedure involves: 1) Preparing the air compressor, purification beds, columns, and other equipment. This includes checking instrumentation and ensuring valves are properly configured. 2) Starting the air compressor and building pressure while blowing off to vents. Then slowly closing vents and sending air to the purification beds. 3) Starting the turbo expander once the compressor is stable. Most of the compressed air is then sent to the expander to accelerate cooling and build liquid levels in the high pressure column. 4) Opening the low pressure column expansion valve once the high pressure column is full to begin

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2K views3 pages

Startup of An Air Separation Plant

This document outlines the general startup procedure for an air separation plant that produces liquid oxygen, nitrogen, and argon. The procedure involves: 1) Preparing the air compressor, purification beds, columns, and other equipment. This includes checking instrumentation and ensuring valves are properly configured. 2) Starting the air compressor and building pressure while blowing off to vents. Then slowly closing vents and sending air to the purification beds. 3) Starting the turbo expander once the compressor is stable. Most of the compressed air is then sent to the expander to accelerate cooling and build liquid levels in the high pressure column. 4) Opening the low pressure column expansion valve once the high pressure column is full to begin

Uploaded by

cymy
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Art Montemayor

Air Separation

May 05, 2013

Startup of an Air Separation Plant


Scope of Work
This startup procedure is a general one and descriptive for an air separation plant
designed for the production of liquid oxygen, liquid nitrogen, and liquid argon in a Linde
Double Column type of distillation unit. The unit is composed of centrifugal air
compressors driven by electric motors, fixed adsorption purification beds filled with
molecular sieves for removal of all water moisture and CO2. Any acetylides present in
the incoming air would be removed inside the cold box by a fixed bed adsorbers in the
crude oxygen (45% vol.) exiting the high pressure column.
The 3 liquefied products are produced for cryogenic storage.
It is assumed that this procedure is for a normal startup for a cold box that is at
ambient temperature and the air separation column is devoid of any cryogenic
fluid. This defines an ambient startup for the column.
The basic, general startup procedures are described as follows:
All cooling water to the compressor intercoolers is circulated throughout all the
coolers;
The air purification adsorption unit is prepared for use by isolating the adsorption
bed to be initially used for operation during startup. The units block valves are
setup to allow purification to take place in one bed while regenerating the alternate
bed.
The main air compressor is manually turned over while the electrical motors main
starter is disengaged. This allows confirmation of rotation freedom for the
compressor shaft. The discharge vent valve is completely opened as well as all
interstage drain valves.
All instrumentation is confirmed to be in working order and the electrical switch to
the compressors motor starter is unlocked and the circuit is activated. All
lubrication systems are confirmed.
The expansion valve on the high pressure column is cracked open as well as the
expansion valve for the low pressure column.
The turbo expander is manually rotated to ensure freedom of operation and the
inlet air block valve is shut while the outlet block valve is opened. All
instrumentation is confirmed to be in working order and the electrical switch to the
Page 1 of 3

Art Montemayor

Air Separation

May 05, 2013

expanders motor generator is unlocked and the circuit is activated. All lubrication
systems are confirmed.
The air compressor is started up by activating the electrical starter to the
compressors motor and the unit is allowed to free-wheel, blowing air through
the interstage drains and the discharge vent. After confirming that the compressor
is operating properly and there are no problems with lubrication and instruments,
the drains are slowly closed one-by-one in the order of increasing stages. The
discharge vent valve is the last to be slowly closed and the compressors discharge
is allowed to enter the adsorption purification system while the entire discharge
system increases up to operating pressure. The discharge pressure is kept at the
operating level using the expansion valve on the HP column.
After ensuring that the air compressor is operating normally and feeding the
purification system and the HP column in a controlled, steady state, the turbo
expander is put on stream by slowly opening the suction block valve while also
throttling the HP column expansion valve to keep the compressor discharge
pressure steady at the operating level. After ensuring that the turbo expander is
running OK and its discharge temperature is slowly decreasing, the majority of the
compressors discharge is sent to the expander by throttling on the HP column
expansion valve. This is done for accelerating the cool down and efficient buildup
of crude oxygen liquid level in the HP column.
The above procedure step is maintained until the liquid level in the sump of the HP
column reaches maximum design level and the expansion valve on the LP column
is slowly opened to allow the crude oxygen from the HP column to cool down the
LP column. This procedure is continued until there is a liquid level built up in the
sump of the LP pressure column, at which time the feed to the turbo expander is
reduced while opening the HP expansion valve. Purity samples are taken routinely
during this time to confirm the established stream purities especially the purities
of the crude and pure oxygen.
As soon as established purities are confirmed the argon side column is put on
stream by opening the feed valve off of the LP column to the argon column.
Stream purity samples are continuously taken and the regeneration of the idle
adsorption bed is carried out during this time. Adsorbent regeneration can
commence as soon as there is 99% waste nitrogen gas available from the column.
Once design stream purities are established and liquid levels are controlled and
held to a constant level, the transfer of product oxygen, nitrogen, and argon can
proceed on to their respective storage tanks.
Page 2 of 3

Art Montemayor

Air Separation

Page 3 of 3

May 05, 2013

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