Supplemental air supply for an air separation system

摘要

Pressurized byproduct gas from an air separation system is work expanded and the resulting work is used to compress supplemental feed air which is combined with a main feed air stream to supply a total air feed to the air separation system. Supplemental air can be provided only during off-design operation when the main feed air stream is insufficient to provide the total air feed to the system. Alternatively, supplemental air can be used continuously in combination with a reduced main feed air stream to provide total feed air to the system.