| 摘要 |
A method and an apparatus for enriching neon and/or helium are provided to enrich and recover neon and helium from residual mixed gas released from an air separating equipment or mixed gas released from a production process or an inspection process, and reduce the transportation cost of the mixed gas of neon and helium and increase the efficiency of a cryogenic neon purification equipment by lowering a composition ratio of nitrogen to mixed gas of neon and helium to less than 30%. As an apparatus for enriching neon and/or helium, in which the concentration of neon and helium is controlled to 70% or higher by reducing the concentration of nitrogen from a mixed gas containing neon and helium in nitrogen gas, the apparatus comprises: a compressor(C-1) for compressing the mixed gas to a high pressure to produce a high pressure mixed gas; a heat exchanger(MH-1) including a nitrogen condenser(H-2) for condensing nitrogen gas by heat-exchanging the high pressure mixed gas with liquefied nitrogen while passing the high pressure mixed gas through the liquefied nitrogen container; a compression storage equipment(C-2) for compressing and storing a gas in the high pressure mixed gas that has not been liquefied in the heat exchanger; a liquefied nitrogen container(NL-1) for storing liquefied nitrogen in the high pressure mixed gas; a pipe for uniting the high pressure mixed gas with gas generated from the liquefied nitrogen container to flow the mixed gas into the heat exchanger; and an expander(EV-1) for subjecting the liquefied nitrogen in the liquefied nitrogen container to adiabatic expansion to allow the adiabatic expanded liquefied nitrogen to unite with the liquefied nitrogen of the heat exchanger. Further, the apparatus for enriching neon and/or helium contains liquid nitrogen for supplement. |
