Cold box and cryogenic plant including a cold box

US7340921B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• L'Air Liquide, Société Anonyme à Directoire et Conseil de Surveillance pour l'Étude et l'Exploitation des Procédés Georges Claude · FR

Inventors

• Denis Cote · Saint-Hyacinthe, CA
• Jean-Pierre Gourbier · Le Plessis-Trévise, FR
• Richard Pawulski · Paris, FR

Key dates

• Filing date: Oct 25, 2004
• Grant date: Mar 11, 2008
• Expiry date: Sep 13, 2025

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y10S62/907
• WIPO field: Chemical engineering
• WIPO sector: Chemistry

Abstract

This disclosure discusses providing safer and more accessible insulating cold boxes for cryogenic equipment. A cold box of the current invention includes a housing partially extending out of the cold box jacket wherein equipment that may need to be accessed can be located. The housing includes a breakaway barrier between the main cold box and the external housing to allow overpressures to be relieved into the cold box. Cold boxes may contain cryogenic columns, sections of cryogenic columns, distillation columns, mixing columns, storage vessels, pressure vessels, heat exchangers, and combinations thereof. The housing may contain auxiliary elements such as rotating equipment, pumps, turboexpanders, instrument devices, valves, and piping. Placing auxiliary elements in a housing outside the main cold box allows for safer access to cryogenic equipment.