Plant for fluorine production and a process using it

Abstract

A fluorine gas manufacturing plant wherein F 2 is manufactured by the electrolysis of KF/HF compositions. The plant comprises skid modules for: HF storage, the electrolytic cells, storage and purification of the manufactured F 2 raw gas, for fluorine gas delivery including a single buffer tank or multiple storage units, scrubbers to provide purified waste gas, for providing cooling water circuits, analysis, electrical rectifiers, an electrical sub-station with transformers and emergency supply, and for utilities including a control room with laboratory and a rest room for the personnel. The advantage of the skids is that they can be separately manufactured in workshops, tested, transported to the facility and assembled there. A great advantage is the safety aspect, a reliable F 2 production for 24 hours and 7 days a week of high purity F 2 .

1 . A plant for fluorine gas production comprising at least one skid mounted module selected from the group consisting of
 a skid mounted module comprising at least one storage tank for HF, denoted as skid  1 ,   a skid mounted module comprising at least one electrolytic cell to produce F 2 , denoted as skid  2 ,   a skid mounted module comprising purification means for purifying F 2 , denoted as skid  3 ,   a skid mounted module comprising means to deliver fluorine gas to the point of use, denoted as skid  4 ,   a skid mounted module comprising cooling water circuits, denoted as skid  5 ,   a skid mounted module comprising means to treat waste gas, denoted as skid  6 ,   a skid mounted module comprising means for the analysis of F 2 , denoted as skid  7 , and   a skid mounted module comprising means to operate the electrolysis cells, denoted as skid  8 .   
     
     
         2 . The plant of  claim 1 , further comprising
 a skid module  9  which is an electrical sub-station to transform medium voltage to low voltage.   
     
     
         3 . The plant of  claim 1 , comprising skid  1 , and wherein the at least one storage tank for HF in skid  1  has an internal volume of from 1 to 2 m 3 . 
     
     
         4 . The plant according to  claim 1 , comprising skid  2 , wherein said skid  2  comprises at least 4 electrolytic cells, each of which is allocated to at least one separate rectifier. 
     
     
         5 . The plant according to  claim 1 , comprising skid  3 , and wherein said skid  3  comprises an HF washer for contacting raw F 2  gas with liquid HF, a condenser to remove HF from the F 2 , and at least one absorber column to absorb HF from the F 2 . 
     
     
         6 . The plant according to  claim 1 , comprising skid  4 , and wherein said skid  4  comprises a multitude of hollow bodies for fluorine gas storage. 
     
     
         7 . The plant according to  claim 6 , wherein each hollow body is shut off from the plant separately. 
     
     
         8 . The plant according to  claim 1 , comprising skid  5 , and wherein said skid  5  comprises at least 2 cooling water circuits and heating and cooling means for the cooling water. 
     
     
         9 . The plant according to  claim 1 , comprising skid  6 , and wherein said skid  6  comprises a sub-skid  6 A comprising an emergency scrubber, and a sub-skid  6 B comprising scrubbers for F 2  and H 2 . 
     
     
         10 . The plant according to  claim 1 , comprising skid  7 , and wherein said skid  7  comprises a multi-cell FT-IR spectrometer and optionally a UV spectrometer. 
     
     
         11 . The plant according to  claim 1 , comprising skid  8 , and wherein said skid  8  comprises a multitude of rectifiers wherein the number of rectifiers corresponds to the number of anodes, or wherein said skid  8  comprises a multitude of dual rectifiers wherein each of the dual rectifiers provides current to 2 anodes. 
     
     
         12 . The plant according to  claim 2 , wherein said skid  9  comprises sub-skids  9 A housing the medium voltage cells for incoming, outgoing and bypassing current, and further comprises skid  9 B housing low voltage switchgears, an emergency generator, and a battery charger station. 
     
     
         13 . The plant according to  claim 18 , wherein said skid  10  comprises sub-skid  10 A housing a control room including a laboratory, and sub-skid  10 B housing a rest room. 
     
     
         14 . The plant according to  claim 1  wherein at least one emergency button is present in each skid. 
     
     
         15 . The plant according to  claim 1  further comprising a seismometer. 
     
     
         16 . The plant of  claim 15 , wherein the seismometer is a strong motion seismometer. 
     
     
         17 . The plant of  claim 15 , wherein the seismometer is connected to a control board and triggers a shutdown of the plant. 
     
     
         18 . The plant of  claim 1 , further comprising
 a skid module  10  which houses utilities and amenities.   
     
     
         19 . The plant according to  claim 1 , comprising skid  2 , wherein said skid  2  comprises at least 4 electrolytic cells with a multitude of anodes, and wherein each of a multitude of rectifiers is allocated to a single anode, or wherein each of a multitude of dual rectifiers is allocated to two anodes. 
     
     
         20 . The plant according to  claim 1 , comprising skid  4 , and wherein said skid  4  comprises a single cell FT-IR for final analysis of the fluorine.