Process for the purification of a major component containing light and heavy impurities

摘要

A process purifies and recovers a major component from a feed stream containing: the major component at a concentration of at least 90 mole %, at least one light component having a greater volatility than the volatility of the major component, and at least one heavy component having a lesser volatility than the volatility of the major component. The process uses a distillation system, wherein at least three streams are produced: the purified major component, a stream enriched in a light component, and a stream enriched in a heavy component. The distillation system includes a higher pressure column and a lower pressure column with thermal linking achieved by condensing at least some of the vapor from the higher pressure column in a reboiler-condenser which provides at least some of the boilup for the lower pressure column. The process is applicable to the purification and recovery of electronic-grade oxygen from a standard-grade oxygen supply.