623.    CONWAY, J. J.  Equipment for Los-Cost Oxygen Production.  Petroleum Meeting, Am. Soc. Mech. Eng., Tulsa, Oct. 7, 1946; Petrol. Processing, vol. 2, 1947, pp. 113-114; Petrol. Refiner, vol. 26, No. 6, 1947, pp. 557-561.

      Process developed by Hydrocarbon Research, Inc., for production of O₂ and the 2,000 ton/day plant now under construction as part of the synthetic fuel installation of Carthage Hydrocol at Brownsville, Tex., are described.  The plant will provide 48,000,000 cu. ft. of 95% purity O₂/day at a cost of $0.05/1,000 cu. ft., including amortization in 15 yr. maintenance at 2% of the capital investment, and operating labor at $2.00/hr., but excluding power and water costs as these are both byproducts of the process.  O₂ is separated from the air by new developments that treat the air as a binary mixture of N₂ and O₂, removing the latter by fractionation.  The operations involved consist essentially of compression, heat exchange, refrigeration, and fractionation, as shown by a flowsheet.  An estimate of the proportional effect of certain major cost items on the cost of manufactured O₂ is indicated.  It is seen that a power cost of $0.05/kw.-hr. accounts for about 65% of the cost of O₂.  The advent of cheap O₂ opens up possibilities for its large-scale use of 6 fields:  Partial oxidation of hydrocarbon gases; gasification of coal; heavy chemical industries; iron and steel manufacture; nonferrous metal industry; and mining.

     CONWAY, M. J.  See abs. 1619.