Oxygen-enriched air is widely used in a number of applications such as in furnace operations and chemical oxidation processes. While lower purity oxygen may be produced with a system using distillation columns, such systems are generally not economical for producing oxygen-enriched air. Oxygen-enriched air may be produced with a system employing reflux condensers, and it is desirable to produce oxygen-enriched air with a reflux condenser system with improved efficiency over known such systems.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a reflux condenser system for producing oxygen-enriched air which operates with improved efficiency compared to conventional reflux condenser systems.
Often it is desirable to also produce lower purity nitrogen in addition to oxygen-enriched air in the production facility so as to use the lower purity nitrogen for inerting, drying or blanketing at the same location where the oxygen-enriched air is used.
Accordingly, it is a further object of this invention to provide a reflux condenser system for producing oxygen-enriched air which operates with improved efficiency compared to conventional reflux condenser systems and which can also effectively produce lower purity nitrogen.