US 7,565,806 B2
	Method and system for supplying an air separation unit by means of a gas turbine
Bernard Saulnier, La Garenne Colombes (France)
Assigned to L'Air Liquide, Societe Anonyme a Directoire et Conseil de Surveillance pour l'Etude et l'Exploitation des Procedes Georges Claude, Paris (France)
Appl. No. 10/564,310 PCT Filed Jul. 21, 2004, PCT No. PCT/FR2004/050347 § 371(c)(1), (2), (4) Date Jan. 11, 2006, PCT Pub. No. WO2005/012814, PCT Pub. Date Feb. 10, 2005.
Claims priority of application No. 03 50389 (FR), filed on Jul. 30, 2003.
Prior Publication US 2006/0201159 A1, Sep. 14, 2006
Int. Cl. F02C 7/00 (2006.01)

U.S. Cl. 60—783  [60/801; 60/39.182]

13 Claims

1. A method for supplying an air separation unit using a gas turbine, in which incoming air enters an inlet of said separation unit, at least a fraction of said incoming air is supplied from said gas turbine, at least one nitrogen-enriched gas stream is extracted from the separation unit, and this nitrogen-enriched gas stream is heated, characterized in that, to heat the nitrogen-enriched gas stream, heat exchange occurs between the fraction of incoming air issuing from the gas turbine and a liquid fraction to be heated in a first heat exchanger, in order to obtain a heated liquid fraction, this heated liquid fraction is added to a liquid mixture fraction, in order to obtain a liquid fraction to be cooled, and heat exchange occurs between this liquid fraction to be cooled and the nitrogen-enriched gas stream in a second heat exchanger.