PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 16032204
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-07
Publication Date: 2018-11
Patent Classification: ["062", "645000"]

Abstract:
An argon reflux condensation system and method in which a plurality of once-through condensers are connected to an argon column of an air separation plant to condense argon-rich vapor streams for production of reflux to the argon column. Condensation of the argon-rich vapor streams is brought about through indirect heat exchange with crude liquid oxygen streams that partially vaporize and are introduced into a lower pressure column of the plant for further refinement. The flow rate of the crude liquid oxygen streams are sensed and controlled at locations in the air separation plant where the crude liquid oxygen is in a liquid state and in proportion to the size of the once-through heat exchangers. Prior to flowing into the once-through condensers, the partially vaporized crude oxygen stream enters a phase separator which separates the crude oxygen vapor from the crude liquid oxygen. The separated crude oxygen vapor bypasses the once-through condensers and is mixed with the vaporized oxygen stream that exits the one-through condensers. Feed stream flow rate to the argon column is controlled in response to air flow rate to the plant and product flow rate is controlled in response to the feed stream flow rate to the argon column.

Claim (Index 21):
A method of condensing argon reflux within an air separation unit having an argon column, a lower pressure column and a higher pressure column, said method comprising the steps of:\n extracting a crude argon feed stream from the lower pressure column; distilling the crude argon feed stream in the argon column to produce an argon-rich vapor column overhead; directing at least a portion of the argon-rich vapor column overhead to a plurality of once-through heat exchangers; condensing the argon-rich vapor streams within condensation passages of the plurality of once-through heat exchangers such that argon-rich vapor streams composed of argon-rich vapor column overhead are condensed within condensation passages of the once-through heat exchangers to produce an argon-rich liquid product stream and argon-rich liquid reflux stream returning the argon-rich liquid reflux stream to the argon column as reflux; partially vaporizing a stream of crude liquid oxygen column bottoms from the higher pressure column to form a partially vaporized crude oxygen feed stream; separating the partially vaporized crude oxygen feed stream in a phase separator into at least one crude oxygen vapor stream and at least one crude liquid oxygen stream; introducing the at least one crude liquid oxygen stream into vaporization passages of the plurality of once-through heat exchangers to partially vaporize the crude liquid oxygen streams through indirect heat exchange with the argon-rich vapor streams to produce partially vaporized crude oxygen streams; directing the at least one crude oxygen vapor stream from the phase separator and the partially vaporized crude oxygen streams from the vaporization passages of the plurality of once-through heat exchangers into the lower pressure column; sensing flow rates of the crude liquid oxygen column bottoms stream taken from the higher pressure column; controlling the flow rates of the crude liquid oxygen bottoms stream taken from the higher pressure column in response to the sensed flow rates and the level of the crude liquid oxygen bottoms in the higher pressure column; and controlling a feed stream flow rate of the crude argon feed stream in response to an air flow rate into the air separation unit and by controlling the reflux flow rate of the argon-rich liquid reflux by: (i) decreasing the reflux flow rate of the argon-rich liquid reflux stream when the feed stream flow rate is above a feed stream set point to thereby cause the argon-rich liquid reflux to back up into the condensation passages of the once-through heat exchanger causing an increase in pressure of the argon-rich vapor stream and within the argon column; and (ii) increasing the reflux flow rate of the argon-rich liquid reflux stream when the feed stream flow rate is below a feed stream set point to thereby cause a decrease in the pressure of the argon-rich vapor stream and within the argon column.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 29.0
- Percentile: 95.0
- Lexical Diversity: 2.53659
- Patent Class: 62.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['14754801', '16032243', '14754786', '12949337', '14492574']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.8794280168761319
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.6205595603263452
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.8535411712211532
- Mean Citation Score: 504.13318
- Max Citation Score: 562.2514
- Similarity Product: 555.555711128676

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 1
- Claim Label 103: 1
- Claim Label 112: 1
- Combined Label: 1
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test