Back to results
US 12,742,588 B2Granted
Single mixed refrigerant LNG production process
AssigneeHoneywell Lng LLC
InventorsMark Julian Roberts, Annemarie Ott Weist, Bo Jin, Brian James Barr
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A simple and efficient single mixed refrigerant process for cooling and liquefying a hydrocarbon feed stream, such as natural gas. The process employs a closed-loop single mixed refrigerant process for refrigeration duty. The refrigerant compressed to a high pressure using at least three stages of compression and two intercoolers (both producing liquid). A hydraulic turbine is used to expand the high pressure refrigerant before it flows into the main heat exchanger.
Claims21
A method for liquefying a hydrocarbon stream using a mixed refrigerant, the method comprising:
- (a) cooling and condensing the hydrocarbon stream and a cooled two-phase high pressure refrigerant stream in a main heat exchanger against an expanded refrigerant stream to form a liquefied hydrocarbon stream, a condensed refrigerant stream, and a vaporized refrigerant stream, wherein the main heat exchanger comprises a plurality of coil wound bundles;
- (b) compressing the vaporized refrigerant stream in a first compression stage to a first pressure to form a low pressure compressed refrigerant stream;
- (c) cooling the low pressure compressed refrigerant in a first ambient cooler to form a cooled two-phase refrigerant stream;
- (d) separating the cooled two-phase refrigerant stream into a first cooled vapor stream and a first cooled liquid stream;
- (e) compressing the first cooled vapor stream in a second compression stage to a second pressure to form a medium-pressure compressed stream;
- (f) pumping the first cooled liquid stream to the second pressure to form a pumped first cooled liquid stream;
- (g) combining the pumped first cooled liquid stream with the medium pressure refrigerant stream to form a combined medium-pressure refrigerant stream;
- (h) cooling the combined medium-pressure refrigerant stream in a second ambient cooler to form a cooled combined medium pressure refrigerant stream;
- (i) separating the cooled combined medium pressure refrigerant stream into a second cooled vapor stream and a second cooled liquid stream;
- (j) compressing the second cooled vapor stream in a third compression stage to a third pressure to form a high-pressure compressed stream;
- (k) pumping the second cooled liquid stream to the third pressure to form a pumped second cooled liquid stream;
- (l) combining the pumped second cooled liquid stream with the high-pressure compressed stream to form a two-phase high-pressure refrigerant stream;
- (m) cooling the two-phase high-pressure refrigerant stream in a third ambient cooler to form the cooled two-phase high-pressure refrigerant stream;
- and
- (n) expanding the condensed refrigerant stream to form the expanded refrigerant stream;
- and
- (o) selecting a refrigeration duty for each bundle of the plurality of coil wound bundles that reduces differences in an overall tube length of each bundle of the plurality of coil wound bundles as compared to each bundle of the plurality of coil wound bundles having an identical refrigeration duty.
14 more elements
A method for liquefying a hydrocarbon stream using a mixed refrigerant, the method comprising:
- (a) cooling and condensing the hydrocarbon stream and a cooled two-phase high pressure refrigerant stream in a main heat exchanger against an expanded refrigerant stream to form a liquefied hydrocarbon stream, a condensed refrigerant stream, and a vaporized refrigerant stream, wherein the main heat exchanger comprises a plurality of coil wound bundles;
- (b) compressing the vaporized refrigerant stream in a first compression stage to a first pressure to form a low pressure compressed refrigerant stream;
- (c) cooling the low pressure compressed refrigerant in a first ambient cooler to form a cooled two-phase refrigerant stream;
- (d) separating the cooled two-phase refrigerant stream into a first cooled vapor stream and a first cooled liquid stream;
- (e) compressing the first cooled vapor stream in a second compression stage to a second pressure to form a high-pressure compressed stream having a pressure of at least 1000 PSIA (68.95 bara);
- (f) pumping the first cooled liquid stream to the second pressure to form a pumped first cooled liquid stream;
- (g) combining the pumped first cooled liquid stream with the high pressure refrigerant stream to form a combined high-pressure refrigerant stream;
- (h) cooling the combined high-pressure refrigerant stream in a second ambient cooler to form a cooled two phase high pressure refrigerant stream;
- and
- (i) expanding the condensed refrigerant stream to form the expanded refrigerant stream;
- and
- (j) selecting a refrigeration duty for each bundle of the plurality of coil wound bundles that reduces differences in an overall tube length of each bundle of the plurality of coil wound bundles as compared to each bundle of the plurality of coil wound bundles having an identical refrigeration duty.
9 more elements
A method of designing and fabricating a system for liquefying natural gas using a closed loop single mixed refrigerant process that supplies refrigeration duty to a cryogenic heat exchanger having a plurality of coil wound bundles, each of the plurality of coil wound bundles having an overall tube length, the method comprising:
- (a) selecting a refrigeration duty for each bundle of the plurality of coil wound bundles that reduces differences in the overall tube length of each bundle of the plurality of coil wound bundles as compared to each bundle of the plurality of coil wound bundles having an identical refrigeration duty;
- and
- (b) fabricating the system to provide the refrigeration duties selected in step (a);
- wherein the sole refrigeration duty for the cryogenic heat exchanger is a stream of the single mixed refrigerant that has been compressed to a pressure of at least 1000 PSIA (68.95 bara) and expanded to form an expanded refrigerant stream.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.