초록 ▼

A cross over valve (46) cyclically supplies air from a compressor (30) to a first bed (48). The first bed contains a material, such as a 5 angstrom zeolite, which preferentially adsorbs nitrogen and passes oxygen and argon therethrough. The oxygen and argon mixture is passed to an oxygen/argon recei

A cross over valve (46) cyclically supplies air from a compressor (30) to a first bed (48). The first bed contains a material, such as a 5 angstrom zeolite, which preferentially adsorbs nitrogen and passes oxygen and argon therethrough. The oxygen and argon mixture is passed to an oxygen/argon receiving reservoir (60). As the cross over valve flushes nitrogen from the first bed, a pumping fluid under pressure is fed into a pressurizing fluid receiving region (66) to pump the oxygen/argon mixture into a second bed (80). The second bed contains a material, such as 4 angstrom zeolite, which passes nitrogen and argon therethrough and which preferentially adsorbs oxygen. The argon, and the nitrogen if any, are discharged through a secondary gas outlet (22) and the oxygen is adsorbed. The adsorbed oxygen is drawn from the second bed by an enriched oxygen pump (90) and pumped periodically into an enriched oxygen storage reservoir (100).

대표청구항 ▼

A method of supplying super-enriched gas, the method comprising: compressing air through a single air compressor to provide a compressed air supply; separating a mixture of oxygen and argon from the compressed air supply with motive power derived from the compressed air supply and discharging the ox

A method of supplying super-enriched gas, the method comprising: compressing air through a single air compressor to provide a compressed air supply; separating a mixture of oxygen and argon from the compressed air supply with motive power derived from the compressed air supply and discharging the oxygen/argon mixture at a relatively low pressure; separating super-enriched oxygen from the oxygen/argon mixture with motive power derived from the compressed air supply and discharging the separated super-enriched oxygen at a lower pressure such that two separation stages are powered by the compressed air supply; increasing the lower pressure super-enriched oxygen to a relatively high pressure with motive derived power from the compressed air supply, whereby super-enriched oxygen is separated from air and supplied at high pressure with only motive power from a single compressor. An oxygen enriching system for use in combination with and which derives all its motive power from an oxygen separator system that includes a compressor means for providing compressed air and an oxygen/nitrogen separating means for separating a mixture of oxygen and argon from the compressed air, the oxygen/nitrogen separating means being operatively connected with the compressor means to receive the compressed air therefrom, the oxygen/nitrogen separating means discharging the oxygen/argon mixture at a relatively low pressure, the oxygen enriching system comprising: a first pressurizing means for increasing the pressure of the oxygen/argon mixture to a relatively high pressure; a means for connecting the first pressurizing means with said compressor means for receiving the compressed air therefrom such that the first pressurizing means derives its motive power from the oxygen separator system compressor means to increase the pressure of the oxygen/argon mixture to the relatively high pressure; an oxygen/argon separating means for separating super-enriched oxygen from argon and discharging the super-enriched oxygen at a lower pressure, the oxygen/argon separating means being connected with the first pressurizing means for receiving the oxygen/argon mixture at the relatively high pressure therefrom such that the oxygen separator compressor means provides motive power for both the oxygen/nitrogen separating means and the oxygen/argon separating means.