Origin of Gas Separation Plants

It is more than a century that oxygen is used for any industrial process. It was used widely but it was not economical for large scale production. Later in 1895, Carl Von Linde invented a new process for producing large quantities of oxygen for industrial use.

Steps of the Process

• Cooling of the air until it becomes liquid.
  
  
• Purification of liquid air.
  
  
• Separating various components of liquid using different boiling points of each gas.

This way by controlling temperature and pressure the gases can be separated and since then the concept of air separation or gas separation came into picture. After this invention Linde was awarded a contract of making air separation plants. The first air separation plant began operating in the beginning of 1999 in China. Today several gas separation plants are made by various companies around the world to meet the increasing demand of the industries.

Air separation plants take atmospheric air and through processes of purification, cleaning, compression, cooling, liquefaction and distillation, separates the air into the gases oxygen, nitrogen and argon.