“Russian Copper Company” JSC, Ekaterinburg, Russia:

I. A. Altushkin, Chairman of Board of Directors
Yu. A. Korol, Vice-President, phone: 8(343)365-29-00

“Karabashmed” JSC, Karabash, Chelyabinsk region, Russia:

A. N. Satonin, Head of an Oxygen Station

Due to the limited capacity at the industrial site on “Karabashmed” JSC and the lack of first line maintenance personell, the adsorption oxygen obtaining method was used to provide the autogenous “Ausmelt” complex with oxygen. Taking into account the choice of this method, there was held an analysis of modern oxygen obtaining methods. According to the company conditions, the following methods were reviewed:
– adsorption method;
– membrane method;
– cryogenic method;
– electrochemical method.
Taking into account the “Karabashmed” JSC conditions, the following factors were additionally taken into consideration in choosing the oxygen producing technology:
– relatively low oxygen consumption;
– absence of technology requirements for high-purity oxygen;
– limitation of the industrial site territory;
– lack of high qualified staff in Karabash town for maintenance and exploitation of an oxygen plant;
– difficulties in the technological air supply at the plant, without any contamination of sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide.
According to the consideration results of various technologies by their usage at the enterprise, it was decided to use the adsorption technology. This decision was accompanied by certain risks due to the lack of the development experience of such processes in Russian metallurgy. Implementation experience of the adsorption method on “Karabashmed” JSC confirmed the validity of the made decisions. In comparison with the generally used cryogenic installations, the system with short-cycle adsorption of variable pressure has certain advantages:
– low energy costs;
– great flexibility in work;
– compact modular design;
– simple maintenance;
– high degree of automation.
In comparison with the membrane method, the chosen technology provides to obtain more pure oxygen at a much higher performance. On the basis of the positive exploitation experience of the oxygen plant on “Karabashmed” JSC, it was decided to expand the facilities of the oxygen obtaining on the basis of the adsorption method.

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2. Pravila bezopasnosti pri proizvodstve vodoroda (Safety regulations during the oxygen production). Available at : http://www.nchkz.ru/lib/39/39944/index.htm
3. Adsorbtsionnye kislorodnye ustanovki, katalog produktsii ZAO GRASIS (Adsorption oxygen installations, product catalogue, GRASYS JSC). Available at : http://www.grasys.com/products/gas/oxygen/adsorption
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