• KEPCO Journal on Electric Power and Energy
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.173-179
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• 2019

Cryogenic air separation unit produces various gases such as $N_2$, $O_2$, and Ar by liquefying air. The process also varies with diverse production conditions. The one for SNG production among them has lower efficiency compared to other air separation unit because it requires ultrapure $O_2$ with purity not lower than 99.5%. Among factors that reduce the efficiency of air separation unit, power consumption due to compress air and heat duty of double column were representatives. In this study, simulation of the air separation unit for SNG production was carry out by using ASEPN PLUS. In the results of the simulation, 18.21 kg/s of at least 99.5% pure $O_2$ was produced and 33.26 MW of power was consumed. To improve the energy efficiency of air separation unit for SNG production, the sensitivity analysis for power consumption, purities and flow rate of $N_2$, $O_2$ production in the air separation unit was performed by change of air boosting ratios. The simulated model has three types of air with different pressure levels and two air boosting ratio. The air boosting ratio means flow rate ratio of air by recompressing in the process. As increasing the first air boosting ratio, $N_2$ flow rate which has purity of 99.9 mol% over increase and $O_2$ flow rate and purity decrease. As increasing the second air boosting ratio, $N_2$ flow rate which has purity of 99.9 mol% over decreases and $O_2$ flow rate increases but the purity of $O_2$ decreases. In addition, power consumption of compressing to increase in the two cases but results of heat duty in double column were different. The heat duty in double column decreases as increasing the first air boosting ratio but increases as increasing the second air boosting ratio. According to the results of the sensitivity analysis, the optimum air boosting ratios were 0.48 and 0.50 respectively and after adjusting the air boosting ratios, power consumption decreased by approximately 7% from $0.51kWh/O_2kg$ to $0.47kWh/O_2kg$.