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Air separation unit installation and qualification at the French Guiana Space Centre.

Number: pap. n. 058

Author(s) : BURDASZEWSKI P.

Summary

Launchers equipped with cryogenics stages use important volumes of liquid oxygen as combustive and also need wide quantities of liquid nitrogen for conditioning and sub-cooling functions. The implementation of Soyuz at the French Guiana Space Centre in 2011 and the Ariane V cadence increase, generate higher needs for production and storage capacity. In that way, a new Air Separation Unit (that only delivers liquid products) and additional cryogenic storages were installed close to the launch pads. The objective was to double the current LOx production and to double the existing LIN&LOx storage capacity. Besides standard constraints linked to such a project, the Kourou SILPA (standard integrated liquid plant air liquide) project was characterized by specific aspects: high purity of LOx, very low particles pollution requirements, equatorial environment with extreme corrosive conditions, Guiana high voltage network limitations, atypical storage sizes (four 500 m3 horizontal cryogenic storages that are among the biggest in the world) , launch campaign constraints and qualification mode. This paper reminds the main inputs for plant and tanks design, gives details on installation (range of LIN/LOx ratio, new energy consumption per liter), the way to manage constraints and finally outlines the gain for the Soyuz&ArianeV launches preparation.

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Pages: 164-171

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Details

  • Original title: Air separation unit installation and qualification at the French Guiana Space Centre.
  • Record ID : 30005953
  • Languages: English
  • Source: Cryogenics 2012. Proceedings of the 12th IIR International Conference: Dresden, Germany, September 11-14, 2012.
  • Publication date: 2012/09/11

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