System and Method for the Production of Liquefied Natural Gas

A method for producing liquefied natural gas from a natural gas source and separating natural gas liquids from the liquefied natural gas produced, comprising:

• compressing natural gas from the natural gas source in a compression assembly fluidly coupled with the natural gas source to produce a compressed natural gas;
• removing a non-hydrocarbon from the compressed natural gas in a separator fluidly coupled with the compression assembly;
• cooling the compressed natural gas to a cooled, compressed natural gas with a cooling assembly in thermal communication with the compression assembly;
• expanding a first portion of the cooled, compressed natural gas in a first expansion element to generate a first refrigeration stream;
• expanding a second portion of the cooled, compressed natural gas in a second expansion element to generate a second refrigeration stream;
• feeding a third portion of the cooled, compressed natural gas to a distillation column of a distillation assembly;
• separating the third portion of the cooled, compressed natural gas into a methane lean natural gas fraction and a methane rich natural gas fraction in the distillation column of the distillation assembly, the methane lean natural gas fraction containing the natural gas liquids;
• feeding the methane rich natural gas fraction to a liquefaction assembly;
• and
• cooling at least a portion of the methane rich natural gas fraction with the first refrigeration stream and the second refrigeration stream in the liquefaction assembly to thereby produce the liquefied natural gas.