Design and analysis of dual mixed refrigerant processes for high-ethane content natural gas liquefaction

Recovery and purification of ethane has a significant impact on economic benefit improvement of the high-ethane content natural gas.However,current LNG-NGL integrated processes mainly focus on conventional natural gas,which are not applicable to natural gas with high ethane content.To fill this gap,three dual mixed refrigerant processes are proposed for simulation study of high-ethane content natural gas liquefaction.The proposed processes are optimized by a combination method of sequence optimization and genetic algorithm.Comparatively analysis is conducted to evaluate the three processes from the energetic and exergetic points of view.The results show that the power consumption of Process 3 which compressing natural gas after distillation is the lowest.For safety or other considerations,some common compositions of the mixed refrigerant may need to be removed under certain circumstances.Considering this,case studies of mixed refrigerant involving six composition combinations are carried out to investigate the effects of refrigerant selection on the process performance.

A New Excess Free Energy Mixing Rule for Representing Vapor-Liquid Equilibria of Mixed Refrigerants

A suitable mixing rule is important for vapor liquid equilibrium(VLE)investigations for mixed refrigerants.In this work,a new excess free energy mixing rule(MRv)was proposed at zero pressure based on the linear relationship between dimensionless parameter 1/(u-1)and a.MRv mixing rule was explicit adopted variable liquid molar volume.The applicable temperature range of MRv could be extended by means of an empirical method to estimate the liquid molar volume for components at high temperatures.Three mixing rules modified Huron-Vidal mixing rule(MHV1),Wong-Sandler mixing rule(WS),and MRv at two reference pressures were used to compare the VLE data in the calculation of 37 mixed refrigerants.Results demonstrated that MRv had a relatively similar accuracy to MHV1 and WS for component and pressure calculation.Moreover,the average excess Gibbs free energy using the MRv mixing rule for the 37 selected mixed refrigerants(0.0013)was much lower than those using the MHV1(0.0078)and WS(0.0809)mixing rules,which was very valuable for the design and optimization of thermodynamic systems using mixed refrigerants.

Development of mobile miniature natural gas liquefiers

With increasing consumption of natural gas(NG),small NG reservoirs,such as coalbed methane and oil field associated gas,have recently drawn significant attention.Owing to their special characteristics(e.g.,scattered distribution and small output),small-scale NG liquefiers are highly required.Similarly,the mixed refrigerant cycle(MRC)is suitable for small-scale liquefaction systems due to its moderate complexity and power consumption.In consideration of the above,this paper reviews the development of mobile miniature NG liquefiers in Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry(TIPC),China.To effectively liquefy the scattered NG and overcome the drawbacks of existing technologies,three main improvements,i.e.,low-pressure MRC process driven by oil-lubricated screw compressor,compact cold box with the new designed heat exchangers,and standardized equipment manufacturing and integrated process technology have been made.The development pattern of"rapid cluster application and flexible liquefaction center"has been eventually proposed.The small-scale NG liquefier developed by TIPC has reached a minimum liquefaction power consumption of about 0.35 kW.h/Nm^(3).It is suitable to exploit small remote gas reserves which can also be used in boil-off gas reliquefaction and distributed peak-shaving of pipe networks.