Slide # Notes

 Greetings
1.  Introduction from the Group Leader
 Title, Members
2.  Individual Contributions
 Air is composed of Nitrogen (N2), which makes up about 78% while Oxygen (O2) is the second
most abundant gas at about 21%. The inert gas Argon (Ar) is the third most abundant gas at
0.93%.
 In the ever-growing need for gas, several processes of air separation techniques are currently
3. used globally.
 The industrial gas market is growing at fast pace and expected to grow to $106 billion by 2022
 Major growth Factors- high demand from end user industries such as energy, healthcare and
electronics.
 Growth due to R&D activities focusing on new applications.
 With continuously increasing demand and production, it is equally paramount to not only take
advantage of the most economical route but also the most efficient, sustainable, safe, and
energy-efficient process. Large scale production of O2 typically works on cryogenic process.
 However, according to patents and literature review surveys, it has been observed that the
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design for CASU has been modified numerous times which means that the process designs in
use are not optimal and can still be further improved to attain optimal results.
 Thus, this plant design endeavors to propose a Cryogenic Air Separation Unit with optimal
production in the Philippine setting
 The process of separation of air components can be mainly classified in two major categories:
cryogenic processes and non-cryogenic processes.
 Cryogenic processes operate in sub-zero temperatures and high pressure where air is
compressed, cooled, liquefied, and then separated using fractionation.
 On the other hand, non-cryogenic processes utilize adsorbents, chemicals, and polymeric
5. membranes to perform the separation.
 In this design, we have considered three (3) main technology options namely: (1) Cryogenic Air
Separation; (2) Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA); and (3) Membrane Separation (MS).
 In consideration of the plant production volume, purity, operation cost, demand, and availability
of technology, this work opted to choose the Cryogenic Air Separation technology as it offers a
more economical approach.
 Cryogenic air separation is currently the most efficient and cost-effective technology for
producing large quantities of oxygen, nitrogen, and argon as gaseous or liquid products as
shown in Figure.
6.  An air separation unit (ASU) using a conventional, multi-column cryogenic distillation process
produces oxygen from compressed air at high recoveries and purities.
 Cryogenic technology can also produce high-purity nitrogen as a useful byproduct stream at
relatively low incremental cost.
 Now, let’s look at the relevant thermodynamic data of the components involved in the process,
which is a requirement for the design.
 The thermodynamic data shown is for air, oxygen, nitrogen, argon, and water. These elements
comprised the immensity of the production.
 Properties of Air
7.  Air is a mixture of many elements in gaseous form along with various suspended impurities
like dust particles organic matter and other pollutants. Water is also present in air which we
know as humidity. The major components are Nitrogen, Oxygen and Argon. A detailed
composition of air is shown in Table as per data
 The main components of air which take part in distillation are Nitrogen, Oxygen and Argon.
Nitrogen is the lightest component while Oxygen is heaviest. Boiling points of the three
components at various pressures of interest are given in Table
8.  Air Contaminants and their Removal
 Air contains a variety of components in trace amounts.
  For any process to operate reliability and safely, it is very important to consider the
physical behaviors and concentration for contaminants like hydrocarbons and CO2.
 For a continuous process, if these components are not controlled in the feed and if they do
not have an exit route, they can gradually build up and deteriorate equipment performance
as well as pose a safety hazard.
 Hydrocarbons: Hydrocarbons like Methane, Ethane as well as heavier species will
condense on low temperatures and would eventually accumulate in the system or freeze
on the surface of heat exchangers.
 CO2 and N2O: these cause plugging issues in the CASU unit. Since they form solid solution
hence, as a best practice of plant operation, their concentration should be limited to less
than 50% of their solubility in liquid and gas stream.
 Now, this part summarizes the contents of the previous chapters that will provide the basis for
the Conceptual Process Design (CPD).
 The purification of various components of air into oxygen, nitrogen, and argon is an important
industrial process. This purification involves Cryogenic Air Separation process where highly
purified gases or liquids are produced. This is achieved by taking large volumes of air from the
atmosphere, which is then compressed, cooled, and liquefied as illustrated in the figure in the
slide.
 The feed air will contain contaminant amounts found in the Philippines at an average of 600 ppm
hydrocarbons and will be at 1 atm and ambient air temperature at 303.15 K. The amount of
9. water in the air will be dependent on the humidity in the air on a given day.
 During the process, air is fed into a molecular sieve column, in which carbon-containing
molecules and water are removed by adsorption.
 The air then enters a series of compressors in which the air is compressed to high pressure.
The air stream enters a high-pressure column from which two streams are separated. The liquid
distillate is rich in nitrogen, and the liquid bottoms product is rich in oxygen. These streams enter
a low-pressure column that separates the nitrogen and oxygen products.
 A vapor side stream is taken from this low-pressure column, and feeds into a single crude argon
tower. The distillate from this column is the crude argon product. The bottoms product of this
column is recycled to the low-pressure column.
 Specifically, this work endeavors to study the feasibility of producing 64.69 metric tons per hour
(1,552.61 metric tons daily) of >98.5% oxygen, 49.07 metric tons per hour (1,177.63 metric tons
10.
daily) of 99.5% nitrogen, and 1.12 metric tons per hour (26.78 metric tons daily) of 99.9% argon
from air.
 This plant will be operated at Capas, Tarlac in Central Luzon, Philippines which has a vast and
flatlands with fresh air blowing freely on its environment.
 It is less than two hours away from Manila and lies north of the Philippine capital.
 The highly developed town is less than 30 km from the Clark Industrial Zone and is
approximately 10 km from the Tarlac Industrial Area.
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 The town is strategically located within economic zones where transport and accessibility to
customers are not a problem
 In addition, it is an ideal place to do business in any part of Luzon due to its strategic location. In
case the plant must export overseas or deliver products in the Visayas or Mindanao, the plant is
less than two hours away by land from the Subic Bay Freeport.
 Six criteria are considered when choosing the best location for this type of plant. The criteria for
the selection of the location of the plant includes availability of space, availability of utilities such
as water, fuel, power, etc., accessibility or transport facilities, climate, availability of labor, and
the proximity to market.
 The water supply is more economical if the plant sources its own water supply facility inside the
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plant vicinity. However, the water supply facility design is not included in this study. Table in the
slide uses the factor-rating method as an effective tool in choosing the best location using the
criteria, as shown.
 The result picks Tarlac (specifically the municipality of Capas, Tarlac) as the ideal place to build
an air separation plant.
13.  The advancement of technology over the years provided an alternative to the use of tables of
 equilibrium and thermodynamic data. Process simulations enable us to find stable operation
point with optimal condition for the process examined.
 In this work, modeling of an air separation unit using the flowsheeting system known as
ChemSepTM program as shown in Figure.
 Industrial gas producers like Praxair, Linde, etc. develop their thermodynamic packages based
on the operational experience and their in-house research and development work.
 However, this information is highly confidential for each company which they establish by
collecting multiple data sets from their decades of plant operations.
 For academic purpose, the next best substitute is the untuned version of known property
methods that nearly match the actual process. From literature survey, it was found that Peng–
Robinson’s equation of state is well suited for academic studies as it was in good agreement
with experimental data found in journals
 The selection of the cryogenic air separation system utilizing ASU to produce oxygen is the
focus of this study. (Discuss the table)
14.
 The machinery maintenance, waste management facility, and product workup are not included
in the plant design. The large tonnage air plants produce purified oxygen, nitrogen, and argon.
 Figure shows a screenshot of the flowsheet set up in COCO
 The cryogenic air separation process involves the tight integration of heat exchangers and
separation columns that is completely driven by the compression of the air (C1 to C3 and H1 to
H3) at the inlet of the unit.
 The air inlet stream is cooled and partially liquefied against the leaving product streams.
Nitrogen is then separated at a pressure of 6 bar in the first column (HPC) and condensed
against boiling oxygen at a lower pressure at around 1.2 bar (LPC).
 These two columns share the same column shell to minimize the temperature difference
between the condensing nitrogen and evaporating oxygen. The liquid bottom product of the
high-pressure column is rich in oxygen and is reduced in pressure. The Joule-Thomson (JT)
effect cools this rich liquid such that it can be used to run the condenser of a side rectifier that
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separates argon from oxygen (ARC). This side rectifier is fed with a vapor side draw from the
low-pressure column.
 The whole process requires additional cooling which can be obtained using an expander that
feeds compressed air directly to the low-pressure column. Thus, a certain part of the air cannot
be separated but leaves the unit as a waste stream. Gaseous nitrogen and oxygen, and liquid
argon are the products (GN2, GOX, and LAR).
 Purities in nitrogen and argon are typically very high, with 1 ppm or less impurities. The oxygen
product purity ranges from 97.5 to 99.5%.
 The 3 distillation columns in the COCO flowsheet are modeled using ChemSepTM. All other
units (the heat exchangers, valves, and flashes) are from the COUSCOUS unit operations
package in COCO.
 This part will describe the process control in maintaining high-quality oxygen, nitrogen, and
argon.
 The plant operation in this project will be supervised from a Central Control Room. Each unit in
the plant will be provided with a central control desk for monitoring and operation of the
respective units.
 Air, oxygen, and nitrogen compressors will be equipped with a central control desk containing
16. sequential startup and monitoring instruments. Also, all these compressors will be provided with
local panels near the respective machines for monitoring and operations.
 Each expansion turbine, Refrigeration Unit, mixture Argon Compressor and other auxiliary
equipment will be provided with only local control panels for startup and monitoring.
 All utilities and common facilities will be grouped together in one control desk. This central
control desk shall contain all Indicators, Controllers, Manual Loaders, and Recorders grouped
for easy identification and operation.
17.  Mass and heat (or material and energy) balances are crucial in the ASU as they describe the
mass quantity through processing operation.
 Presented in the slide are the material and energy balance for each process involved in this
design. They are calculated by following the general law for material and energy balance
  Shown in Table is the Mass and Heat Balance for this cryogenic air separation plant’s individual
process.
 This part summarizes the design, materials, and construction of the equipment of the CASU.
 This cryogenic air separation unit includes the pre-cooler (heat exchanger) and the adsorption
column.
 In this project, we shall be employing brazed aluminum plate fin heat exchanger and for the
18. adsorption, we shall be using alumina and 13X zeolite.
 The main purpose of this unit is to remove impurities in the air. The pre cooler cools the air and
at same time helps to remove about 70% of water vapor as condenses upon cooling.
 The impurities in air that would contribute most to plugging would be water and carbon dioxide.
The hot air comes into the unit at about 390°C and leaves at 8°C.
 The design process utilizes the American-standard TEMA (Tubular Exchangers Manufacturers
Association) Class C, which covers heat exchangers for moderate duties in commercial and
general process applications.
 This project will utilize Brazed-aluminum-plate-fin heat exchangers (or core exchangers or cold
boxes). This device is made of a stack of corrugated fins alternating with nearly equal number of
flat separators known as parting sheets, bonded together to form a monolithic block.
 The figure on the upper right shows the assembly of the tubes in a heat exchanger. The shell
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and tube heat exchanger has a bundle of tubes contained in a cylindrical metal shell where the
ends fit into plates. A series of baffles, held together by spacers and support rods, are provided
to support the tubes, and direct the fluid flow.
 The different views of a plate fin heat exchanger are shown in the images on the lower portion.
The corrugations serve both as secondary heat transfer surface and as mechanical support
against the internal pressure between layers. This heat exchanger has a pressurized shell and
will be designed in accordance with the appropriate national pressure vessel code or standard.
 Mechanical Design of the Compressor: Compressors are machines designed to deliver gas
at a pressure higher than that originally existing. For this design, we would be working with a
centrifugal compressor as shown in the Figure right.
20.
 This project chose the centrifugal compressor over other compressor types. Centrifugal
compressors are dynamic machines in which the rapidly rotating impeller accelerates the gas.
 Figure left illustrates the Centrifugal Impeller that will be used in this project.
 During cryogenic distillation, heat exchangers and cooling coils lower the temperature inside the
distillation column. The resulting system is called a cold box. Cryogenic gases are fed into a cold
box and distilled at very low temperatures. This cryogenic distillation column will use the plate
design since packing material is less efficient at lower temperatures. In this work, a double column
(Figure right) consists of an upper (Low-Pressure, LP) column and a lower (High-Pressure, HP)
column with an integral condenser/reboiler.
 Briefly, air enters the high-pressure column. A liquid poor in oxygen, the so-called poor liquid, is
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produced at the top stage of the high-pressure column and rich liquid at the bottom. These are fed
to the low-pressure column as reflux and feed respectively. As the poor liquid contains very little
oxygen, the vapor in equilibrium with it leaving the top stage of the low-pressure column will also
contain very little oxygen and as a result the nitrogen product is purer. This arrangement also
allows the production of pure nitrogen at medium pressure, about 5.7 bar, from the high-pressure
column as well as at low pressure from the top of the low-pressure column, at about 1.2 bar.
 Shown in figure lower left are the different views of the double column distillation unit.
22.  The proper design selection of equipment eliminates the potential hazards of an air separation
plant. The strict implementation of adherence to good working etiquettes established codes, and
standards & specifications will eliminate the potential hazards in the plant. The problem
connected with metal embrittlement and compatibility will not stop the execution of the afore-
mentioned codes and standards.
 ASU plant operation has some hazards that are associated with gases being ventilated into the
atmosphere, such as: asphyxiation (nitrogen and argon), enhanced fire risk (oxygen), cold and
low visibility (cryogenic gases and liquids), hot gases (e.g., compressor inter-stage
relief/discharge gas vents). These hazards must be controlled at the plant site. The gas exit
velocity of warmed gases is also important at the warm end of an ASU. Noise and odor levels
 should be at permitted acceptable levels.

HAZOP Analysis
 This proposal for a cryogenic air separation plant recommends using HAZOP (hazard and
operability) study.
 Cryogenic air separation is a clean and dry process that has a negligible impact on the local
environment
 In the air separation industry, pure oxygen may cause the rapid combustion of all combustible
materials and can cause burning of materials normally considered non-combustible.

Waste disposal
 The waste the plant produces is also negligible and does not need significant study. Oxygen
does not generate SO2, NOx, or particulate emissions. Emissions are limited to those normally
associated with compressor cooling systems which include cooling tower drift and lubricating oil
mists. Other waste gases at ambient temperature and containing carbon dioxide and water
vapor constitute the process vent. Excess clean and dry product gases will be vented
occasionally.
 It is proposed that the plant would be designed to comply with the requirements of the
Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Regulations.
 This section evaluates the proposed cryogenic air separation plant based on it its economic
stability. The total cost of producing oxygen, nitrogen, and argon is comprised of investment and
operating expense.

Plant Capacity and Basis

Production Cost
 The product cost is heavily influenced by operating costs with power being the major
operating expense. Power requirements can constitute as little as 30% of total product cost
or as much as 95% depending on the unit price of power and the plant size. The engineers
in charge of building the plant should come up with quick, rough, cost estimates to decide
between alternative designs and for project evaluation. Chemical plants are built to make a
profit, and an estimate of the investment required, and the cost of production are needed
before the profitability of a project can be assessed.
Fixed Capital
 The fixed capital is the total cost of the plant ready for start-up. It is the cost paid to the
contractors building the plant. The following are included in the fixed capital:
 Design, and other engineering and construction supervision.
 All equipment and installation.
 All piping, instrumentation, and control systems.
 Buildings and structures.
 Auxiliary facilities (such as utilities, land, and civil engineering works)
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Working capital
 It is the additional investment poured into the project, which is over the fixed, to start the plant to
operate to earn income. The following are included in the working capital:
 Start-up.
 Initial catalyst charges.
 Raw materials and intermediates in the process.
 Finished product inventories.
 Funds to cover outstanding accounts from customers.
 Operating cost
25.  The Operating Cost is the set of expenses which the plant operates which includes the fixed and
the variable cost.
26.  Discuss the economics
 According to the analysis in Table of ROR, the payback period is less than 3 years, which is less
than half of the estimated life of the plant based on the lifespan of equipment which makes the
project highly economically viable. The production of liquid nitrogen and argon contributed to the
27. bulk sales that make the business more profitable. Also, the main raw material of the process is
air, which is free and available any time of the year, and in any weather. Although the piping
system, water source facility, warehousing and delivery of products, and other parts of the plant
outside the battery limit: their cost is minimal compared to the physical plant cost.
 Cryogenic air separation method is most common route owed to its high nitrogen and oxygen
purity production at high flow rate or capacity
 ASU air separation producing 64.69 metric tons per hour of >98.5% oxygen, 49.07 metric tons
28. per hour of 99.5% nitrogen, and 1.12 metric tons per hour of 99.9% argon from air.
 The economic analysis of this design reveals that is has an ROR of 46.57% with a payback
period of less than 3 years, which is less than half of the estimated life of the plant based on the
lifespan of equipment which makes this air separation plant highly economically viable.
 Further improvements on the Argon gas can still be done for industrial uses and greater
revenues.
 The plant may build its own power plant to supply its own electricity if the supply of nitrogen
becomes more sustainable in the future.
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 Further modifications and improvements can be done using simulation software which enable
engineers, designers, and technical people to do simulations in real-time and more accurate
results.
 Thank you for listening!
30.  References