Air Separation
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Air separation is the most common process used to extract one or all of main constituents of atmospheric air. The three main components are Nitrogen (78.1%), Oxygen (20.9%) and Argon (0.9%). The remaining gases in the air are in trace amounts and normally not recovered. In very large air separation units (ASU) Neon, Xenon and Krypton are recovered in small amounts.
Cryogenic air separation utilizes the differing condensing/boiling points of the components of air to enable separation by distillation at cryogenic temperature.
At atmospheric pressure the main components of air have the following condensing/boiling points:
Nitrogen -320.4 Degree F.
Oxygen -297.3 Degree F.
Argon -302.5 Degree F.
Since air is a simple mixture, liquefying and distilling air provides a process to successfully separate the Nitrogen, Oxygen, and Argon. All ASU's use this process.
