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The natural gas liquefaction process is an important sector of the overall liquefied natural gas (LNG) value chain. In this article, a thermodynamic-analysis-based study of the minimization of the energy consumption of a typical natural gas liquefaction process is performed. First, a rigorous simulation of the natural gas liquefaction process is conducted. According to the simulation results, the operating states of the refrigerant and natural gas streams are revealed, along with the operating conditions of the entire liquefaction process. Then, the energy consumption roadmap is determined through in-depth thermodynamic analysis, where the opportunities for energy consumption minimization are identified. Based on the thermodynamic analysis, a rigorous optimization model is developed and solved for energy consumption reduction of the same natural gas liquefaction process. Finally, the optimization results are examined again through rigorous simulation to check the feasibility of the obtained optimal solution.

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Natural gas liquids (NGL) recovery from shale gas needs large amounts of cold energy for cooling, while liquefied natural gas (LNG) re-gasification requires tremendous hot energy for heating. Thus, recycling the cold energy from LNG re-gasification process at a receiving terminal to assist the NGL recovery process has great economic benefits on both energy saving and high-value product recovery. In this paper, a novel conceptual design by integrating NGL recovery from shale gas and LNG re-gasification at receiving terminals has been developed. It firstly generates a process superstructure. Then, a simulation-assisted mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model is developed and solved for the optimal process synthesis. Next, heat exchange network (HEN) design and analysis are performed to accomplish the maximum energy-saving target. Finally, rigorous plant-wide simulations are conducted to validate the feasibility and capability of the entire conceptual design coupling of separation and heat integration.