System and Method of De-Bottlenecking LNG Trains
AssigneeExxonMobil Upstream Research Company
InventorsSorin Lupascu, Yow-Yeen Lee
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system and method for producing liquefied natural gas (LNG) from a natural gas stream. Each of a plurality of LNG trains liquefies a portion of the natural gas stream to generate a warm LNG stream in a first operating mode, and a cold LNG stream in a second operating mode. A sub-cooling unit is configured to, in the first operating mode, sub-cool the warm LNG stream to thereby generate a combined cold LNG stream. The warm LNG stream has a higher temperature than a temperature of the cold LNG stream and the combined cold LNG stream. The combined cold LNG stream has, in the first operating mode, a higher flow rate than a flow rate of the cold LNG stream in the second operating mode.
Claims28
A system for producing liquefied natural gas (LNG) from a natural gas stream, comprising:
- a first LNG train configured to liquefy a first portion of the natural gas stream to generate
- a first warm LNG stream in a first operating mode, and
- a first cold LNG stream in a second operating mode;
- a second LNG train configured to liquefy a second portion of the natural gas stream to generate
- a second warm LNG stream in a first operating mode, and
- a second cold LNG stream in a second operating mode;
- and
- a sub-cooling unit configured to, in the first operating mode, sub-cool the first warm LNG stream and the second warm LNG stream to generate the first cold LNG stream and the second cold LNG stream;
- wherein the first and second warm LNG streams have a higher temperature than a temperature of the first and second cold LNG streams;
- and
- wherein the first and second cold LNG streams, in the first operating mode, have a higher combined flow rate than the combined flow rate of the first and second cold LNG streams in the second operating mode.
A system for producing liquefied natural gas (LNG) from a natural gas stream, comprising:
- a plurality of LNG trains, each of the plurality of LNG trains configured to liquefy a portion of the natural gas stream to generate
- a warm LNG stream in a first operating mode, and
- a cold LNG stream in a second operating mode;
- and
- a sub-cooling unit configured to, in the first operating mode, sub-cool the warm LNG stream to thereby generate a combined cold LNG stream;
- wherein the warm LNG stream has a higher temperature than a temperature of the cold LNG stream and the combined cold LNG stream;
- and
- wherein the combined cold LNG stream has, in the first operating mode, a higher flow rate than a flow rate of the cold LNG stream in the second operating mode.
A method of producing liquefied natural gas (LNG) from a natural gas stream, the method comprising:
- providing a plurality of LNG trains and a sub-cooling unit;
- using each of the plurality of LNG trains, liquefying a portion of the natural gas stream to thereby generate
- a warm LNG stream in a first operating mode, and
- a cold LNG stream in a second operating mode;
- and
- in the first operating mode, sub-cooling in the sub-cooling unit the warm LNG stream to thereby generate a combined cold LNG stream;
- wherein the warm LNG stream has a higher temperature than a temperature of the cold LNG stream and the combined cold LNG stream;
- and
- wherein the combined cold LNG stream has, in the first operating mode, a higher flow rate than a flow rate of the cold LNG stream in the second operating mode.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.