Fuel gas conditioning units for natural gas systems

A fuel gas conditioning unit, comprising:

• a heat exchanger comprising:
• a hot section defining a hot feed flowpath configured to receive a raw feed stream, a hot fuel flowpath configured to discharge a finished fuel gas stream, and a hot liquids flowpath configured to discharge a finished liquids stream, and wherein the hot section of the heat exchanger is configured to transfer heat in the hot section from the raw feed stream to both a cooled fuel stream to form the finished fuel gas stream and a cooled liquids stream to form the finished liquids stream;
• a cold section separate from the hot section and defining a cold feed flowpath configured to discharge a cooled feed stream formed from the raw feed stream, a cold fuel flowpath configured to receive the cooled fuel stream, and a cold liquids flowpath configured to receive the cooled liquids stream, and wherein the cold section of the heat exchanger is configured to transfer heat in the cold section from the raw feed stream discharged from the hot section of the heat exchanger to both the cooled fuel stream and the cooled liquids stream to form a cooled feed stream;
• an expansion valve coupled to the heat exchanger and configured to receive the cooled feed stream from the heat exchanger and discharge an expanded feed stream formed from the cooled fuel stream;
• a feed separator, comprising:
• an inlet coupled to the expansion valve the and configured to receive the expanded feed stream;
• a fuel outlet configured to discharge the cooled fuel stream that is separated from the expanded feed stream in the feed separator such that the cooled fuel stream is received by a fuel inlet of the heat exchanger;
• and
• a cooled liquids outlet configured to discharge a cooled liquids stream separated from the expanded feed stream in the feed separator such that the cooled liquids stream is received by a cooled liquids inlet of the heat exchanger.

A fuel gas conditioning unit, comprising:

• a brazed aluminum heat exchanger comprising a hot section, a separate cold section, a feed inlet of the hot section configured to receive a raw feed stream having a pressure that is less than 1,000 pounds per square inch gauge (PSIG), a cooled liquids inlet of the cold section configured to receive a cooled liquids stream, a cold fuel inlet of the cold section configured to receive a cooled fuel stream, a cooled feed outlet configured to discharge a cooled feed stream formed from the raw feed stream, a fuel outlet configured to discharge a finished fuel gas stream, and a liquids outlet configured to discharge a finished liquids stream;
• an expansion valve coupled to the heat exchanger and configured to receive the cooled feed stream from the heat exchanger and discharge an expanded feed stream formed from the cooled feed stream;
• and
• a feed separator comprising an inlet coupled to the expansion valve and configured to receive the expanded feed stream, an interior configured to separate the expanded feed stream into the cooled fuel stream and the cooled liquids stream, a fuel outlet configured to discharge the cooled fuel stream such that the cooled fuel stream is received by a hot fuel inlet of the heat exchanger, and a cooled liquids outlet configured to discharge the cooled liquids stream such that the cooled liquids stream is received by a cooled liquids inlet of the heat exchanger;
• wherein the heat exchanger is configured to transfer heat between the raw feed stream and both the cooled liquids stream and the cooled fuel stream across the hot section and the cold section of the heat exchanger, to form the finished fuel gas stream from the cooled fuel stream received by the hot fuel inlet of the heat exchanger, and to form the finished liquids stream from the cooled liquids stream received by the cooled liquids inlet of the heat exchanger.