Patent ID: 7111673

Claim:
System for stripping and rectifying a fluid mixture, comprising: a counter-flow heat exchanger with channels closed on all sides with end inlet and end outlet for a stripper section and a rectifier section; a compressor being fitted between the inlets of said stripper section and rectifier section; said heat exchanger being made up of a series of adjacent parallel plates between which channels closed on all sides for said stripper section or rectifier section are alternately delimited; said channels extending essentially vertically and being so constructed that all liquid contained therein is able to move towards the bottom of said section; and said channels of said stripper section and rectifier section having a flow cross-section decreasing from the inlet end to the outlet end over the full height of said heat exchanger such that as one channel cross section increases over the full height of said heat exchanger, an adjacent channel cross section decreases.