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Flashing Liquid Expanders For Crygenic Industries
Flashing Liquid Expanders For Crygenic Industries
Flashing Liquid Expanders For Crygenic Industries
cryogenic industries
Presented to Petrotech 2010
2nd November 2010, New Delhi, India
Roger Dambach
Simon Hautdidier
Please visit www.cryostar.com
What is flashing?
Flashing occurs due to a rapid expansion of the
liquid below the saturated liquid line
Nucleation reduces metastability
LNG often contains a fraction of Nitrogen
Multi-component fluid will enhance nucleation
Gas inclusions in the liquid act as nuclei for gas
flashing
Location
Power
(kW)
Air
Braddock,
Pennsylvania,
USA
95
Air
Izdemir,
Turkey
65
N2
Claymont,
Delaware, USA
85
JT valve
Process
isolation
valve
Quick
closing
valve
Twophase
flow
N2 purge outlet
Liquid
turbine
installed
at grade
Pressure
control
valve
Process
isolation
valve
A height
difference
of 20 40
meters is
common
Drain to
low
pressure
N2 purge inlet
Confidential Information. This document is the property of Cryostar. It is not permitted to copy it, relate its contents to other persons, or to misuse it in any other way
No reason to be
reluctant!
FLE not a critical
equipment
Always installed
in parallel to a
Joule Thompson
valve (JTV)
Plant efficiency
benefits are
enormous
Oil & gas
turboexpanders
already
operating inside
the dome
NG
treatment
expander
Flashing
liquid
expander
API 617
expander
Ethylene
expander
API 617
expander
Liquid
inlet
Liquid
inlet
Liquid
inlet
Flashing
outlet
Flashing
outlet
Flashing
outlet
Multi stage
radial inflow
FLE
Impulse
wheel
FLE
Single stage
radial inflow
FLE
Rh > 0.5
Rh = 0
Rh = 0.5
6
hG = his g H L
hactual
hisentropic
wG =
hG
his
3
s
s
wG = 1
p stage
liquid his
with
liquid =
Entropy s
Ratio of potential work by the flashed gas over isenthalpic work in a FLE
100.0%
Flashing in mass (LNG lean)
90.0%
Work contribution of flashed gas (LNG lean)
Flashing in mass (LNG rich)
80.0%
Isentropic expansion
from 60 bar(a) to 1.25 bar(a)
10.0%
0.0%
-160
-150
-140
-130
-120
-110
-100
-90
-80
1000
Ethylene Plants I
Ethylene Plants II
100
10
1
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
High stage
Intermediate stage
40
15
-95
-115
15
Massflow (kg/s)
LNG type
N2
C1
C2
C3
LNG lean
0.5 mol%
98 mol%
1.5 mol%
0 mol%
LNG rich
0.5 mol%
91.5 mol%
6 mol%
2 mol%
10
Methane
refrigeration
system
according to
Qualls et al
(2004)
HP stage
IP stage
~20% mass
flashing at
discharge
11
The impact of process conditions on the work contribution of the flashed gas
10
80%
Flashing in mass at turbine discharge (in %)
70%
60%
7
50%
6
5
40%
30%
3
20%
2
10%
0%
0
High Pressure
Rich LNG
High Pressure
Lean LNG
Interm. Pressure
Rich LNG
Interm. Pressure
Lean LNG
12
Liquid
inlet
Flashing
outlet
13
Liquid
inlet
Approximate inception
of flashing in a
single stage FLE
based on conditions
in Table 3
Flashing
outlet
14
Wheel diameter in mm
400
Single stage
radial inflow FLE
350
300
Impulse wheel
FLE
250
Utip = 65 80 m/s
200
150
Wheel tip diameter (single stage FLE for high stage)
100
50
0
1
1.5 mtpa
3.6 mtpa
5.2 mtpa
15
90
80
70
60
Impulse wheel
FLE
W
U
50
40
30
C
W
Single stage
radial inflow FLE
20
U
10
0
High Pressure
Rich LNG
High Pressure
Lean LNG
Interm. Pressure
Rich LNG
Interm. Pressure
Lean LNG
16
Cold power extracted from the process fluid for Lean LNG
Single stage
radial inflow
FLE
Impulse wheel
FLE
17
Summary of results
Both single stage and impulse wheel FLE are valid turbine concepts for LNG
Multi stage FLE technology excluded work contribution of flashed gas too high
Upper limit of max work contribution of flashed gas estimated to be 20%
Impulse wheel FLE design yields 3 times higher relative velocities at wheel inlet
Impulse wheel must be titanium, single stage FLE can be aluminium
Risk of phase separation at leading edge
Seperated liquid will migrate to the ps of the impulse blade high friction losses
Risk of phase separation in the downstream piping (froth or annular flow)
Single stage FLE will extract more work from the fluid
Conclusion
Single stage radial inflow FLE is the best performing and most qualified FLE
technology currently available to the LNG industry
18