Rare Gas Recovery Scenario Presets
Load calibrated ASU fleet, chip-grade neon and satellite xenon benchmarks:
ASU Fleet, Recovery, Pricing & Capital Inputs
Rare Gas Recovery Flowsheet
| Process Parameter | Output / Metric |
|---|
| Revenue / Cost Line | Annual ($M/yr) |
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20-Year NPV & IRR Sensitivity: Xenon Recovery vs. Neon Price
20-Year Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) Pro-Forma Schedule
10-Year Straight-Line Depreciation | 21% Tax | 1%/yr Escalation| Year | Ne (Nm³) | Xe (kg) | Revenue ($M) | OPEX ($M) | EBITDA ($M) | Taxes ($M) | Free Cash Flow ($M) | Discounted FCF ($M) | Cumulative FCF ($M) |
|---|
Governing Rare Gas Recovery Relations
1. Air Throughput
Air processed scales with oxygen production:
Vair ≈ 3,333 Nm³/t O2 × PO2 × 365 × uptime
About 3,333 normal cubic meters of air per tonne of oxygen at 21% O2.
2. Trace Gas Inventory
Gas available per year in air feed:
Vgas = Vair × yi × ηi
y: Ne 18.2 ppm, Kr 1.14 ppm, Xe 0.087 ppm. Densities: Ne 0.90, Kr 3.74, Xe 5.89 kg/Nm³.
3. Boiling Points
Separation by cryogenic distillation at atmospheric pressure:
Tb: Ne 27 K < N2 77 K < Ar 87 K < Kr 120 K < Xe 165 K
Neon stays gaseous in the condenser vent; krypton and xenon concentrate in liquid oxygen.
Rare Gas Recovery Mastery Quiz
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Air contains 18.2 ppm neon, 1.14 ppm krypton and 0.087 ppm xenon. In a cryogenic air separation unit, neon and helium concentrate in the non-condensable vent of the main condenser, while krypton and xenon accumulate in the liquid oxygen sump. Upgrade columns enrich each stream, catalytic reactors remove hydrocarbons, and further cryogenic distillation and adsorption deliver 99.99% products.
Deep-ultraviolet excimer lasers (ArF 193 nm and KrF 248 nm) used in photolithography run on a neon buffer gas mix at about 95–99% neon. Because much neon was refined in a few steel-linked regions, supply disruptions create price spikes, so chipmakers value diversified ASU-integrated neon supply.
Xenon is only 0.087 ppm of air, about 13 times scarcer than krypton and 200 times scarcer than neon, so each kilogram requires processing enormous airflows. Demand from ion propulsion for satellites, high-intensity lighting, medical imaging and semiconductor etch keeps prices at hundreds to thousands of dollars per kilogram.
Air holds only 5.2 ppm helium, and natural gas wells hold up to a few percent, so extraction from air is far costlier than from natural gas or LNG end-flash gas. Neon trains sometimes co-produce small helium streams, but the economics are dominated by neon, krypton and xenon.
The model scales air throughput from oxygen capacity and uptime, multiplies by trace concentrations and recovery fractions, prices neon per normal cubic meter and krypton and xenon per kilogram, subtracts power, purification and logistics and fixed O&M, then applies a two-year ramp, 10-year depreciation, 21% tax and 1% escalation over 20 years discounted at WACC.