Systems and methods for recovering non-condensable gases such as neon, helium, xenon, and krypton from air separation units

摘要

Systems and methods for recovering rare gases such as neon, helium, xenon, and krypton from air separation units are provided. The rare gas recovery system includes a non-condensing stripping column connected in a heat transfer relationship with the xenon-krypton column through an auxiliary condenser-reboiler. The non-condensing stripping column produces a noble gas containing overhead that leads to the secondary condenser-reboiler, most neons contain more than about 50% molar fraction of neon, and the total neon recovery is more than 95% crude It is captured in a non-condensed exhaust stream which is further processed to produce a neon vapor stream. The xenon-krypton column further accepts two streams of liquid oxygen from the low pressure column and noble gas containing overhead from the non-condensing stripping column to produce crude xenon and krypton liquid streams and oxygen-rich overhead.