| 摘要 |
A first separation stage (A) separates nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and water vapor from atmospheric air. A mixture of oxygen and argon is passed from the first separation stage as the feed stock to a second separation stage (B). The second separation stage includes a pair of molecular sieve beds (90a, 90b) which adsorb oxygen and pass argon. The feed stock is passed to one of the beds such that the oxygen is adsorbed and the argon flows through to an argon discharge port (96). When the first bed is reaching saturation, a secondary product valve (108) closes the argon discharge port, a flush valve (82) supplies high purity oxygen to the bed, and a product conservation valve (104) causes the oxygen and argon gas in the interstitial voids of the saturated bed to be channeled to the other bed. The other bed is at reduced pressure by virtue of having just had its adsorbed oxygen desorbed. After the primary product flushing gas has flushed all of the argon from the interstitial voids of the saturated bed into the other bed, the saturated bed is connected with a low pressure collection tank (110) and a compressor (112) which desorbs the adsorbed oxygen and pumps it into a high purity oxygen receiver tank (116). As the saturated bed is being desorbed, the feed stock is supplied to the other bed. The process is repeated cyclically.
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