Patent ID: 7591882
Filing Date: 2009-09-22
Classification: B01D,B04B

Abstract:
1. In a method for separating gas mixtures with a gas centrifuge, wherein a compressible process fluid is introduced into a double-walled rotor and the process fluid is compressed and separated due to centrifugal forces, wherein gas molecules with a relatively higher molecular weight contained in the gas mixture are enriched along an outer wall of the rotor, and portions of the process fluid with mutually different contents of the components contained in the gas mixture are carried away separately, the improvement which comprises: introducing the process fluid from an axial central supply tube into a widening enveloping area of the compression area of a double-walled centrifuge rotor, with a gas mass flow being shaped and positively guided on a circular path as an axial distance increases through the flow channels in the compression area; carrying the process fluid with a constant flow cross section in a centrifuged state in the double tube in flow channels in the area of the double-walled centrifuge rotor remote from the axis; in the centrifuged state, separating the gas flow into a relatively heavy gas fraction and a relatively light gas fraction at a separating threshold dependent on a proportion by volume of the individual gases; positively guiding, braking and carrying away the separate gas fractions separately with decreasing axial distance in the flow channels upstream of a transition from an area remote from the axis to the expansion area, as seen in a flow direction; wherein an acceleration of the gas molecules in the compression area and the braking of the gas fractions in the expansion area are proportional to the mass; and wherein the flow channels are formed between webs extending parallel to the axis, in the double-walled centrifuge rotor.