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Additively Manufactured Cryogenic Microchannel Distillation Device for Air Separation
  • +5
  • Danny Bottenus,
  • Paul Humble,
  • Russell Burnett,
  • Warren Harper,
  • Tim Veldman,
  • Michael Powell,
  • John Barclay,
  • James Ely
Danny Bottenus
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Paul Humble
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
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Russell Burnett
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
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Warren Harper
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
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Tim Veldman
WhiteSpace Engineering LLC
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Michael Powell
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
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John Barclay
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
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James Ely
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
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Abstract

The efficiency of air separation is tested using three different small scale cryogenic distillation columns. The performance of a random packed column is compared to the performance of two microchannel distillation (MCD) columns that use thin wicking structures and gas flow channels to achieve process intensification. The MCD columns tested include a plate-type layered (PTL) column and an additively manufactured porous honeycomb (AMPH) column. For columns with 25.4 cm of active height and run under similar conditions, the packed, PTL, and AMPH columns achieved approximate height equivalent of a theoretical plate (HETP) values of 5.5, 3.7, and 3.2 cm for nitrogen, and 5.9, 4.9, and 3.3 cm for argon. The AMPH column can produce up to 0.4 SLM of 90+% purity oxygen with 12 W of cooling lift. These results demonstrate the feasibility of using additive manufacturing to construct MCD devices and pave a way for constructing novel MCD designs.
26 Jul 2022Published in Journal of Advanced Manufacturing and Processing. 10.1002/amp2.10139