PROCEDIMIENTO PARA EL SUMINISTRO OCASIONAL DE UN GAS DE APOYO PARA MANTENER EL NIVEL DE PRODUCCION DE UN GAS DE UNA UNIDAD DE SEPARACION CRIOGENICA.

摘要

A back-up quantity of a "first" gas is supplied temporarily to maintain the level of production of the first gas from a cryogenic separation of a gaseous mixture comprising the first gas and at least one other gas in the event of reduction in the level of production of said first gas from the separation. The separation comprises separating the mixture, or a mixture derived therefrom, in at least one cryogenic distillation system (2,4) to produce liquefied first gas, the or each system retaining a portion of said liquefied first gas as inventory (22) and vaporising a further portion of said liquefied first gas by indirect heat exchange (28) against a process stream (30) in at least one heat exchanger (28) to produce said first gas. In the event of reduction in the level of production of said first gas from the separation, liquefied first gas inventory is withdrawn from the or at least one of said cryogenic distillation systems and vaporised to produce said back-up quantity of first gas. The invention has particular application to the production of gaseous oxygen ("GOX") from the separation of air.