Krypton and xenon from air

Ultra-pure Nitrogen Generator Nitrogen Production Krypton and Xenon from Air Ultra-High-Purity Oxygen Foods... 

The latest of three ethylene recovery plants was started in 1991. Sasol sold almost 300,000 t of ethylene in 1992. Sasol also produces polypropylene at Secunda from propylene produced at Sasol Two. In 1992 Sasol started constmction of a linear alpha olefin plant at Secunda to be completed in 1994 (40). Initial production is expected to be 100,000 t/yr pentene and hexene. Sasol also has a project under constmction to extract and purify krypton and xenon from the air separation plants at Sasol Two. Other potential new products under consideration at Sasol are acrylonitrile, acetic acid, acetates, and alkylamines. 

Krypton and Xenon are valuable gases present in very low concentrations in air. U.S. 6,662,593 assigned to Air Products describes a cryogenic distillation process for air separation with recovery of a stream concentrated in Kypton and Xenon. What would be the cost of producing purified Krypton and Xenon by this method Consider reactive methods for separating Krypton and Xenon from the concentrated stream as well as the methods suggested in the patent. 

Commercially pure (< 99.997%) helium is shipped directiy from helium-purification plants located near the natural-gas supply to bulk users and secondary distribution points throughout the world. Commercially pure argon is produced at many large air-separation plants and is transported to bulk users up to several hundred kilometers away by tmck, by railcar, and occasionally by dedicated gas pipeline (see Pipelines). Normally, only cmde grades of neon, krypton, and xenon are produced at air-separation plants. These are shipped to a central purification faciUty from which the pure materials, as well as smaller quantities and special grades of helium and argon, are then distributed. Radon is not distributed commercially. 

Off-Gas Treatment. Before the advent of the shear, the gases released from the spent fuel were mixed with the entire dissolver off-gas flow. Newer shear designs contain the fission gases and provide the opportunity for more efficient treatment. The gaseous fission products krypton and xenon are chemically inert and are released into the off-gas system as soon as the fuel cladding is breached. Efficient recovery of these isotopes requires capture at the point of release, before dilution with large quantities of air. Two processes have been developed, a cryogenic distillation and a Freon absorption. 

Air separation industry, U.S., 27 754 Air-separation plants, 27 359, 750-751 Air-separation units, krypton and xenon recovery from, 2 7 362 Air-slaked lime, 15 26 Air slaking, 25 43 Air sparging... 

In 1894 Ramsay removed oxygen, nitrogen, water and carbon dioxide from a sample of air and was left with a gas 19 times heavier than hydrogen, very unreactive and with an unknown emission spectrum. He called this gas as argon. In 1895 he discovered helium as a decay product of uranium and matched it to the emission spectrum of an unknown element in the sun that was discovered in 1868. He went on to discover neon, krypton and xenon, and realized these represented a new group in the periodic table. 

Argon, neon, krypton, and xenon are all produced commercially as byproducts from large cryogenic air separation plants. The distillation of liquid air is normally performed in the double-column arrangement (Fig. 1). The rare gases are produced in side columns operated in conjunction with the standard double-column plant. 

From this clue came also the later discovery of three other inert elements of the air. From liquid argon, the same scientists separated new neon, hidden krypton, and xenon (the stranger) present to the extent of one part in eighty thousand, twenty million, and one hundred and seventy million parts of air respectively. With modern apparatus at his disposal it is not difficult to believe that Cavendish might have been the discoverer of these noble gases one hundred years before they were given to the world. 

Helium is the second most abundant element in the universe. In the Earth, it is continuously formed by radioactive decay, mostly of uranium and thorium. Its present concentration in the atmosphere is probably the equilibrium concentration between the amount being released from the Earth s crust and the amount of hehum escaping from the atmosphere into space. The atmosphere represents the major source for neon, argon, krypton, and xenon. They are produced as by-products during flactional distillation of liquid air. Radon is obtained from the radioactive decay of radium. 

Separation. — Krypton tins never been obtained except from the atmosphere, A convenient method of separation consists in passing a slow stream of dry oxygen, which has I men materially enriched by fractionation in a liquid air plant, through a tube cooled with liquid air, In this way krypton and xenon together with a little argon condense ns a liquid or solid. 

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