Systems and apparatus for compressing and cooling incoming feed air streams in cryogenic air separation plants

摘要

There is provided a system and apparatus for compression of an inflow feed air stream using at least two variable speed compressor direct drive assemblies that are cooperatively controlled. The first variable speed drive assembly directly drives at least one compression stage in the low pressure compressor while the second variable speed drive assembly drives the high pressure compression stage placed in a common air compression train or a split functional compression train of the air separation plant directly . The first and second variable speed drive assemblies preferably each have a motor body, a motor housing, and a motor shaft having at least one impeller directly and rigidly coupled to the motor shaft via a sacrificial rigid shaft coupling, , Variable speed electric motor assembly.