Simulation of a novel single-column cryogenic air separation process using LNG cold energy

In this paper, a novel single-column air separation process is proposed with the implementation of heat pump technique and introduction of LNG cold energy. The proposed process is verified and optimized through simulation on the Aspen Hysys (R) platform. Simulation results reveal that the power consumption per unit mass of liquid product is around 0.218 kWh/kg, and the total exergy efficiency of the system is 0.575. According to the latest literatures, an energy saving of 39.1% is achieved compared with those using conventional double-column air separation units. The introduction of LNG cold energy is an effective way to increase the system efficiency. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).