Equipment
 During lifetime of the “Chromium” Ltd a unique team of scientific and technical workers and specialists was formed. A great attention is paid to scientific and research works and development activity, the results of which are used to create new techniques. Such a policy of the company allowed elaborating new high efficiency technologies and creating a series of unique plants to generate crude mixtures and produce high purity Krypton and Xenon.
Plant “Chrom-3”
 At present there are three plants to process the prime Krypton concentrate (PKC), these are ÓÑÊ-1Ì, ÓÑÊ-0,45 and «Chrom-3». (Abbreviation ÓÑÊ means “plant of crude Krypton”). The two first plants were elaborated in Scientific Production Association “Kriogenmash”, they are constructed according to the cycle of PKC compression in a piston oxygen compressor. The plant “Chrom-3 was elaborated in “Chromium” Ltd in 1999 on the base of patents ¹¹ 2149676, 2149053, 2166687, 2166354, 2173943 of the Russian Federation, it is based on the low pressure cycle without oxygen compression by mechanical means; an internal compression of the purified PKC takes place with following gasification “entirely”. Absence of oxygen compressors permits to place the plants “Chrom-3” near to blocks of air separation according to acting rules of technical supervision (the plants of ÓÑÊ type need separate premises, long pipelines with vacuum insulation, including those for liquid nitrogen supply). Also reliability, explosion and fire safety of equipment are increased. Thanks to minimization of associated capital costs as well as lower costs for exploitation the prime cost of Kr-Xe mixture generation using the plants “Chrom-3” is twice lower as compared to the plants of ÓÑÊ type. Now six plants “Chrom-3“ are fully operational, the first plant was put in exploitation in 2002 at the West Siberian metallurgical complex.
Main advantages of the plant “Chrom-3” as compared to the ÓÑÊ one:
1. High coefficient of Krypton-Xenon mixture extraction from the PKC – up to 99.9%.
2. Low pressure cycle with internal compression of the purified liquid PKC
3. Absence of oxygen compressors allowing reducing energy costs and providing explosion and fire safety of the plant.
4. Possibility to place “Chrom-3” near the ASP inside an oxygen workshop.
5. Practically twice decrease of specific consumption of liquid nitrogen for treatment of the PKC.
6. 1.7 times total electric power reducing on 1nm3 of the Krypton-Xenon mixture generated.
7. Execution in blocks allows quick assembly and putting in exploitation.
Comparison of data of the plants for the PKC processing for Krypton-Xenon mixture generation:
|
Parameter
|
Plant type
|
|
ÓÑÊ-1Ì
|
ÓÑÊ-0.45
|
«Chrom-3»
|
|
PKC capacity, nm3/h
|
120
|
240
|
240
|
|
K-Xe mixture capacity,nm3/h
|
0.24
|
0.48
|
0.48
|
|
Liquid nitrogen flow rate, kg/h
|
145
|
360
|
200
|
|
Warm nitrogen flow rate, nm3/h(Ð=0.6ÌPà)
|
110
|
100
|
-
|
|
Warm air flow rate, nm3/n (Ð=0.6ÌPà)
|
-
|
450
|
600
|
|
Installed capacity, kW
|
70
|
130
|
80
|
|
Electric power consumption for liquid nitrogen production at ASP of ÊÒÊ-35 type,
kW-h/ nm3
|
1.09
|
1.09
|
1.09
|
|
Electric power consumption for air compression up to 0.6 ÌPà, kW-h/ nm3
|
0.072
|
0.072
|
0.072
|
|
Electric power consumption for nitrogen compression up to 0.6 ÌPà, kW-h/ nm3
|
0.09
|
0.09
|
0.09
|
|
Total cost per unit of energy on 1 nm3 of PKC, kW-h
|
1.98
|
2.35
|
1.42
|
|
Total cost per unit of energy on 1 nm3 of KXM (at 0.2% Kr+Xe concentration in PKC), kW-h
|
991
|
1175
|
710
|
List of plants “Chrom-3 operating at present:
|
Enterprise
|
Location
|
Exploitation Beginning
|
|
Public corporation ”West Siberian metallurgic complex”
|
Novokuznetsk, Russia
|
2002
|
|
Public corporation “Enakievskiy metallurgic works”
|
Enakievo, Ukraine
|
2003
|
|
Public corporation “Magnitogorskiy metallurgic works”
|
Magnitogorsk, Russia
|
2003
|
|
Public corporation «Krivorojskiy metallurgic works”
|
Krivoy Rog, Ukraine
|
2004
|
|
Public corporation “Azovstal”
|
Mariupol, Ukraine
|
2006
|
|
Public corporation “Alchevskiy metallurgic complex”
|
Alchevsk, Ukraine
|
2007
|
The period of exploitation showed that all plants were reliable, high efficient and easy in exploitation and servicing.
|
