Report on Liquefaction of Natural Gas

By: Vidit Kumar Singh

CH16184

(B.E. CHEMICAL 4TH YR)

OBJECTIVE: -
• Advantages of the Mixed refrigerant process over the conventional cascade
process: a comparison
(G. Venkatarathnam, Cryogenic Mixed Refrigerant Processes, DOI: 10.1007/978-0-
387-78514-1_6, © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2008)
• Hydrofluoroolefin-based novel mixed refrigerant for energy efficient and
ecological LNG production.
(Qyyum MA, Lee M, Hydrofluoroolefin-based novel mixed refrigerant for energy
efficient and ecological LNG production, Energy (2018),
doi:10.1016/j.energy.2018.05.173.)

• Advanced exergetic analysis of a refrigeration system for

liquefaction of natural gas.
(George Tsatsaronis and Tatiana Morosuk, Technische University Berlin,
Germany.
International Journal of Energy and Environmental Engineering
ISSN: 2008-9163, Vol.1 / No.1(pp.1-18) / Fall2010)
For Research Paper 1: -
ABSTRACT:

The liquefaction of natural gas using a mixed refrigerant process was first proposed by
Kleemenko in 1959 [50]. Mixed refrigerant processes were subsequently adopted for
the commercial liquefaction of natural gas nearly 40 years ago. Over 95% of the base-
load LNG plants operate on mixed refrigerant processes, with the remaining few
operating on conventional cascade processes.
The enthalpy of natural gas varies nonlinearly with temperature (at constant pressure),
with points of inflection on the enthalpy temperature curve. A simple Linde process
cooler shown therefore does not ensure a close temperature approach between the
streams over the entire length of the heat exchanger, resulting in low exergy efficiency.
Complex mixed refrigerant natural gas liquefaction processes have therefore been
designed to accomplish the close temperature approach between streams in the
superheated vapor, subcooled liquid, and two-phase regions, most of which are
described in international patents.

Keywords:

Liquefaction of natural gas, mixed refrigerant, cascade process, exergy efficiency,

approach temperature.

Introduction:

Turbine-based processes such as the reverse Brayton process that operate with
nitrogen as the working fluid are also used in the liquefaction of natural gas on a small
scale. The efficiency of many of the turbine-based processes can be improved
byusingmixturesofnitrogenandmethaneastherefrigerantinsteadofpurenitrogen. Some of
the fundamental turbine-based processes are also discussed in this chapter for the sake
of completeness. A number of patents exist on different processes that can be used for
the liquefaction of natural gas. Some of them have also been used in practice. The
choice of a particular process depends on a number of considerations such as cost and
availability of equipment, size and transportability of heat exchangers, choice and
efficiency of prime movers (gas turbines, steam turbines, electric drives), etc., apart
from the work of compression or exergy efficiency. A number of articles exist in the
literature on the comparison of different LNG processes on a different basis such as
work of compression, heat exchanger area required, etc. . The aim of this monograph is
to bring out the evolution of the LG processes from the simple to the very sophisticated
processes used currently in large base-load plants, and to help the reader understand
the differences between the different processes. The order in which the different LNG
processes are presented is, therefore, different from the chronological order in which
they were invented and has been chosen to help the reader understand the
fundamental differences between the processes as well as the evolution of LNG
processes in a logical fashion. Optimum refrigerant compositions and compressor
operating pressures and temperatures have been determined for the processes
discussed using the methods described in Chapter 5. The performance of different
processes has been discussed from an exergy utilization point of view.

CONCLUSION:

The first few natural gas liquefaction plants and a few current plants are based on the
classical cascade processes operating with pure fluids such as methane, ethylene, and
propane. Most existing base-load natural gas liquefaction plants operate on the mixed
refrigerant processes, with the propane precooled mixed refrigerant process being the
most widely used.
In the classical cascade process, the natural gas feed is cooled and liquefied using
three different pure refrigerants: propane, ethylene, and methane. Each of these
refrigerants is evaporated at three or four pressures as shown in Fig. 6.2, to provide
refrigeration at nine or 10 temperature levels. A large number of heat exchangers are
necessary, as shown in Fig. 6.2. An open-loop methane process is used in the
ConocoPhillips optimized cascade process [75], with the feed flash gas generated after
expansion of the subcooled natural gas feed serving as the refrigerant for the open-loop
methane refrigeration stage. The cascade process operating with pure fluids provides
refrigeration at a constant temperature at different temperature levels, while mixed
refrigerant processes provide continuous refrigeration between room temperature and
the desired LNG subcooling temperature (110–130 K), resulting in a higher efficiency.
For Research Paper 2:-
ABSTRACT:

To satisfy the worldwide demand for energy, the liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry
has grown significantly in the past three decades owing to its low CO2 emissions and
high thermal efficiency compared to the other available energy resources.
However, the process of natural gas liquefaction is generally considered to be energy-
intensive. In this context, a novel hydrofluoroolefin (HFO-1234yf)-based mixed
refrigerant, with the advantages of zero ozone depletion and minimal global warming
potential, is proposed to liquefy natural gas in an ecological and energy-efficient
manner.
A new liquefaction cycle using the HFO-based mixed refrigerant is developed to fully
utilize its potential. The results reveal that the overall energy requirement for natural gas
liquefaction can be reduced by 46.4% compared with a single mixed refrigerant
process, 42.5% compared with a dual mixed refrigerant process, and 36.3% compared
with the Linde–single mixed refrigerant process. Economic analysis based on the
capacity parameters of each equipment is also performed to emphasize the commercial
feasibility of the proposed LNG process.
The proposed HFO-based mixed refrigerant system provides an innovative solution to
improve the ecological aspects and energy efficiency of natural gas liquefaction
processes.

Keywords:

Natural gas liquefaction; LNG; HFO-1234yf; Ecological mixed refrigerant; Energy

efficient.

INTRODUCTION:

As global societies continue to expand their energy mix, a single source natural gas is
becoming increasingly important. This is mainly due to its high ecological nature
compared to the other available fossil fuels. Liquefaction is considered the most feasible
and economic approach for storing and transporting
natural gas. Therefore, several new liquified natural gas (LNG) plants will be established
in
2018, and SHELL reported that the LNG trade will grow by 50% through 2020. The
refrigeration and liquefaction facilities normally accounting for ~40–50% of the total LNG
project (supply chain) cost.
To date, mixed refrigerant-based LNG processes have higher energy efficiency
compared to nitrogen expander-based LNG processes, but at the expense of a high
degree of complexity, safety concerns, and greater capital investment. The energy
requirement for LNG production through mixed refrigerant-based liquefaction processes
is significantly higher than the minimum required energy, although, the selection of the
most suitable and appropriate liquefaction process does not depend only on the energy
efficiency of any specific liquefaction process. The major issues associated with LNG
plants are the capital cost, complexity, and energy efficiency. Hence, there is a
substantial industrial need to develop an innovative and eco-friendly LNG process with
improved energy efficiency, lower capital investment, and less complexity.

Eco-friendly HFO-based mixed refrigerant:

Natural gas liquefaction processes require tremendous amounts of energy for the shaft
work in the compression units of the refrigeration cycle. This shaft work strongly
depends on the temperature gradients in the main cryogenic LNG exchanger.
Thermodynamically, the LNG process can be categorized into three main steps:
cooling, liquefaction, and sub-cooling. Entropy generation causes an exergy loss or
increment in the shaft work requirement owing to a sudden
increase or decrease in temperature during the LNG process. This process ignores the
cooling step and only accounts for sudden liquefaction
and sub-cooling, that according to the third law of thermodynamics causes entropy
generation (or exergy loss). In the conventional C3MR-based LNG process, propane
(boiling point −42.04℃) is used to precool the natural gas to its boiling point, which
causes low entropy generation. The entropy generation can be further minimized by
adding one or more ecological components as an intermediate with a boiling point
between the propane boiling point and the natural gas inlet temperature.

Composite curves of-

a) conventional mixed refrigerant
b) with the addition of n-butane
CONCLUSION:

The use of a hydrofluoroolefin-based novel mixed refrigerant for energy-efficient and

ecological LNG production was demonstrated. To achieve the maximum potential
benefits of the proposed novel mixed refrigerant, a new liquefaction process was
developed, resulting in a reduction of the required specific compression power. To
derive the maximum benefit from this new mixed refrigerant with the proposed
liquefaction cycle, a hybrid optimization algorithm was developed and applied. The
conclusions drawn can be summarized as follows.
• Based on the optimized results, the specific compression energy was reduced by up to
25.1% compared with the base case.
• Compared to the established liquefaction processes, we illustrated the superior
performance of the proposed HFO-MR natural gas liquefaction process.
• The overall energy requirement for natural gas liquefaction can be reduced by 46.4%
compared with that of a single mixed refrigerant process, 42.5% compared with a dual
mixed refrigerant process, and 36.3% compared with the Linde–single mixed refrigerant
process
• It is expected that the eco-friendly fourth-generation refrigerant HFOs, which have
grown
rapidly for use in air conditioning systems and vehicles, will provide an innovative
solution for the improvement of energy-intensive natural gas liquefaction processes
from an ecological and energy efficiency perspective.
• An economic analysis of the process was performed in terms of the capacity
parameters of the equipment used.

For Research Paper 3:-

ABSTRACT:

During the last years the total cost of LNG technology has decreased significantly due
to improvements of the liquefaction process. However, many liquefaction plants that are
still in operation use a three-cascade refrigeration system. In this paper, an advanced
exergetic analysis is applied to better understand the operation of a three-cascade
refrigeration system for liquefaction of natural gas. In an advanced exergetic analysis,
the exergy destruction within a plant component is split into its endogenous/exogenous
and unavoidable/avoidable parts. With the aid of this analysis, the potential for
improving the thermodynamic efficiency of components and the overall system as well
as the interactions among components and their effect on the exergy destruction within
each component are estimated. This paper demonstrates some capabilities associated
with an advanced exergetic analysis.
KEYWORDS:

LNG, liquefaction, cascade refrigeration machine, exergetic analysis, advanced

exergetic analysis.

Introduction:
Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is expected to contribute more in future than in the past
to the overall energy supply in the world. The advantages of using LNG as well as
problems related to all stages of LNG technology (liquefaction process, transport and
regasification process) are discussed frequently in the literature; some new and
important data are summarized in Worldwide, there are 26 existing liquefaction
(export) terminals, located on or off shore, in 15 countries (the start-up date of the
earliest liquefaction terminal is given in parenthesis) During the last years the total cost
of LNG technology has decreased significantly due to improvements of the liquefaction
process. Instead of the classical three-cascade refrigeration system used in the first
liquefaction terminals, new schematics with different mixtures as working fluids are
developed. Examples include, (a) the single flow mixed refrigerant process, where the
mixed refrigerant, made up of nitrogen, methane, ethane, propane and isopentane, is
compressed using a single compression train.

Discussion:
The schematic of the three-cascade refrigeration system used for liquefaction of
natural gas is shown in Figure 1. The operating conditions for the liquefaction plant as
well as the environmental conditions are based on generalized data obtained from the
existing export terminals. Some initial data and assumptions made for the simulation
are given in Table 1. The simulation of a three-cascade refrigeration system is
relatively difficult because many factors should be taken into account simultaneously.
More details and the assumptions used for the analysis are given in.
Thermodynamic data for the material streams are given in Table 2. The following
simplifications, which do not significantly affect the results obtained from the energetic
and exergetic analyses, were used:
Conclusion:

We conclude that a conventional exergetic analysis provides useful information, but an

advanced exergetic analysis makes this information more precise and useful and
supplies additional information that cannot be provided by any other analysis.
The avoidable exergy destruction identifies the potential for improving each system
component. The values of the sum of the avoidable exergy destruction is a new and
very important variable in the advanced exergetic analysis because this value
summarizes all information obtained from the advanced exergetic analysis and shows
the relative importance of improving single components and the structure of the
overall system.