What is the purpose of the main cooler in the air separation tower?
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May I ask what kind of equipment the main cooler in air separation towers is? What is its function? Where is the location of the air separation tower?
It’s the mechanism that connects the upper and lower towers in a cryogenic plant – on one side, liquid oxygen is vaporized, while on the other side, gaseous nitrogen is condensed~~
The main cooler is located between the upper and lower towers~~ Of course, there is also a configuration in which it is placed at the bottom of the upper tower, parallel to the lower tower; in this case, the main cooler is generally situated at the top of the lower tower~~
What should be the structure inside this thing?
Air cooling is a type of heat exchanger; for the lower column, it functions as a condenser that condenses the liquid nitrogen in that column, providing liquid flow downward to ensure proper distillation； In the upper column, there is an evaporator that evaporates the liquid oxygen present in that column, generating steam that rises upward and thus enabling distillation ； As for the structure, it may be necessary to distinguish whether it is a membrane-type main cooler or a bath-type main cooler ； It seems that AP’s equipment often features membrane-type main coolers. Most bath-type main coolers are essentially heat exchangers in which the gas and liquid phases do not come into direct contact, with an outlet for non-condensable gases on the gas side
This post was last edited by “Beautiful, so beautiful!” Edited on 2018-8-13 15:18: Plate-fin heat exchanger
This counts as a type~~ Hehe~~
The link between the upper and lower towers, the condensation of liquid nitrogen, the evaporation of liquid oxygen