Air separation plants cool down and liquefy air in order to separate it into its single components Oxygen, Nitrogen, Argon and rare gases like Krypton, Xenon, Helium and Neon. This cryogenic process dates back to an invention of Linde founder Carl von Linde at the end of the 19 th century.
Produced gases are used in wide variety of industries like steel, welding and cutting, petrochemical, glass, chemicals, food & beverages, electronics and health care.
The products are produced in gaseous form for pipeline supply to the consumers or as cryogenic liquid for intermediate storage, as back-up and for distribution by roadtankers.
Main technology owners and suppliers:
Linde, Air Liquide, Air Products, Hanyang, KFAS, Fortune, SIAD
For smaller and medium size capacities suppliers have developed their “Standard ASUs” (Packaged Air Separation Plants) with maximum preengineered and prefabricated process units for an overall optimized and economic application.
Individually designed Air Separation Plants for specific demands of customers, very often with a multiple product mix (Oxygen, Nitrogen, Argon, Rare Gases) and for large capacities, so called “Tonnage ASUs” (in the range of 500 – 2000 TPD of Oxygen) are offered.
Typical arrangements of a two train Tonnage ASU