| 摘要 |
A method and apparatus for separating air by cryogenic rectification in which cooled, compressed and purified air is separated in a distillation column system (18) having higher (62) and lower pressure (60) columns operatively associated with one another in a heat transfer relationship (74) to produce an oxygen-rich liquid stream from the lower pressure column. The oxygen-rich liquid stream (128) is pumped and heated through indirect heat exchange (17) with a compressed heat exchange stream (30) to form a pressurized oxygen product stream (151). Part of the air is sequentially and successively compressed in booster compressors (34,40) driven by turboexpanders (38,32) to form the compressed heat exchange stream (30) while other parts of the air (22,24) are expanded in the turboexpanders (38,42) driving the booster compressors (34,40) to form exhaust streams (56,58) that are introduced into both the higher and lower pressure columns to generate refrigeration. |
