Oxygen from Atmospheric Air
Control Valves for Cryogenic and Oxygen Service.
Technically, oxygen is produced from atmospheric air. During the complete cycle beginning with the production, the storage, the transportation, and finally the use of oxygen the gas passes different hazardous levels to material and to operation personnel. After the technical process the remaining oxygen is combined in oxides mostly as carbon dioxide and as steam. In the photosynthetic process of plants the oxides are transformed back into oxygen and the oxygen loop can start from the beginning.
Safety Standards
Even though safety standards in the gas processing industry are at a high level there are frequent accidents in the handling of oxygen. The existing safety regulations which are incorporated to the valve design and are applied during the manufacture, the assembly and the various tests, require an extremely reliable and skilled work force.
- Safety Regulations and common rules, such as EIGA, Shell Engineering Practices and Air Liquide Standards require high alloy materials (Monel and Inconel) on the valve body and internals.
- Material selection shall be strictly in accordance with IGC 13-02 „Oxygen Pipeline Systems“ in correspondence with the flow velocity
- Supersonic flow must strictly be avoided
Typical Gases
Arca Ecotrol® Globe Control Valve for cryogenic gases like
Oxygen (O2) / Neon (Ne) / Nitrogen (N2) / Argon (Ar)
Arca Ecotrol® Control Valves for Oxygen
The Arca Ecotrol® Globe Control Valves are available in the following sizes, pressure classes and materials
Size Range
1” to 8” / 25mm to 200mm
Pressure Rating
ANSI 150 to 900 / PN 16 to PN 160
Materials
- Valve body made of cast Monel 400 or Inconel 625
- Trims made of Monel 400/500 or Inconel 625, on multistage trims kolsterized
High Pressure Oxygen
High Pressure Oxygen is used on various applications today:
- Coal gasification plants
- Coal-gas fired power plants (Shell and Krupp Koppers process)
- H2/CO Plants (POX) by controlled burning of Natural Gas or Hydrocarbons
Production & Oxygen Cleaning
Control valves for Oxygen service
- Must be free of dirt and grease under all circumstances. This requires a separate processing from other valves, in a room not connected to the factory.
- After assembly and pressure and leakage testing, a reference leakage test with nitrogen is performed.
- After this, the valve will be totally disassembled, cleaned in an ultrasonic bath and dried in a hot air furnace. The the valve will be reassembled in a separate fixture (only used on clean valves) with new gaskets and the reference measurement will be done again to verify correct assembly.
To learn more visit the Arca Ecotrol® page or download the Oxygen overview.