Design and optimization of nitrogen expansion liquefaction processes integrated with ethane separation for high ethane-content natural gas

He, Ting; Lin, Wensheng

doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2020.115272

Cited by 12 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…In this way, the compression duty is provided by the power produced at a different point of the cycle directly, instead of passing through an intermediate conversion to electricity, making the process more efficient and avoiding electric motors and generators, thus reducing cost. An example of a nitrogen cryogenic cycle using companders can be found in [ 17 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimum Expanded Fraction for an Industrial, Collins-Based Nitrogen Liquefaction Cycle

Pozo

López‐Paniagua

López‐Grande

et al. 2020

Entropy

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Industrial nitrogen liquefaction cycles are based on the Collins topology but integrate variations. Several pressure levels with liquefaction to medium pressure and compressor–expander sets are common. The cycle must be designed aiming to minimise specific power consumption rather than to maximise liquid yield. For these reasons, conclusions of general studies cannot be extrapolated directly. This article calculates the optimal share of total compressed flow to be expanded in an industrial Collins-based cycle for nitrogen liquefaction. Simulations in Unisim Design R451 using Peng Robinson EOS for nitrogen resulted in 88% expanded flow, which is greater than the 75–80% for conventional Collins cycles with helium or other substances. Optimum specific compression work resulted 430.7 kWh/ton of liquid nitrogen. For some operating conditions, the relation between liquid yield and specific power consumption was counterintuitive: larger yield entailed larger consumption. Exergy analysis showed 40.3% exergy efficiency of the optimised process. The exergy destruction distribution and exergy flow across the cycle is provided. Approximately 40% of the 59.7% exergy destruction takes place in the cooling after compression. This exergy could be used for secondary applications such as industrial heating, energy storage or for lower temperature applications as heat conditioning.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimum Expanded Fraction for an Industrial, Collins-Based Nitrogen Liquefaction Cycle

Pozo

López‐Paniagua

López‐Grande

et al. 2020

Entropy

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show abstract

“…Besides, basic conditions such as feed gas information, products requirement and other equipment parameters not determined by the process need to be artificially set. Thus, to further simplify the simulation, additional assumptions are given as follows 39,48 :…”

Section: Simulation Conditions and Assumptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The advantages and disadvantages of the stochastic approaches like Genetic algorithm and Particle swarm paradigm are opposite to the deterministic approaches. 39 For improvement of energy efficiency, enhancement of precooling cycle with wasted heat-powered absorption cycle can reduce the power consumption of natural gas liquefaction by 15% ~16%. 40 He and Lin studied the energy saving and production increase method for mixed refrigerant natural gas liquefaction plants by taking advantage of natural cold sources in winter.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…But the disadvantages are also obvious: they are inability to handle multiple‐objective problems, depending on a good initial estimate, and possible to end up in local optimal results. The advantages and disadvantages of the stochastic approaches like Genetic algorithm and Particle swarm paradigm are opposite to the deterministic approaches 39 . For improvement of energy efficiency, enhancement of precooling cycle with wasted heat‐powered absorption cycle can reduce the power consumption of natural gas liquefaction by 15% ~ 16% 40 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, it has the advantages of structure and energy integration, obtaining the low‐pressure products of both LNG and LEG, which facilitates the storage and transportation. For different processing scale and application requirements, the nitrogen expansion process, 39 C3MR process, 44 SMR process, 45 and DMR process 46 are used to provide cooling capacity for the system. Natural gas liquefaction is energy intensive, and the power consumption of the system mainly comes from the refrigerant compressors.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Design and analysis of cascade liquefaction processes for coproducing liquid ethane and LNG

Lin

2022

Intl J of Energy Research

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Ethane recovery is an important way to increase the economic benefits of unconventional natural gas, such as shale gas. However, current researches did not focus on obtaining high purity and high recovery rate of ethane. In this study, two pure refrigerant cascade natural gas liquefaction processes without (Process 1) or with (Process 2) flash gas recovery are proposed to coproduce high-purity liquefied ethane gas (LEG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG). The proposed processes are combined with advanced distillation methods to reduce the energy consumption through process and energy integration. Aspen HYSYS V11 and genetic algorithm (GA) are used to simulate proposed processes and optimize the refrigeration cycles, respectively. To search the optimal conditions of distillation column, power consumption under different distillation pressure is comparatively analyzed, and the optimal distillation pressure is about 2.7 MPa. According to the optimization results, the specific power consumption of Process 1 is 0.4384 ~0.4584 kWh/Nm 3 (NG), and that of Process 2 is 0.4336 ~0.4503 kWh/Nm 3 (NG) when ethane content is 10% ~40%. Process 2 is preferred for lower power consumption and no material waste.Further study is conducted to research the effect of throttling temperature and ethane content on the system performance of Process 2. In addition, the feasibility exploration of cryogenic compression shows that re-compression of natural gas after distillation is not energy saving for the proposed process.

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Proposal and investigation of a novel small-scale natural gas liquefaction process using diffusion absorption refrigeration technology

2022

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Design and optimization of nitrogen expansion liquefaction processes integrated with ethane separation for high ethane-content natural gas

Cited by 12 publications

References 30 publications

Optimum Expanded Fraction for an Industrial, Collins-Based Nitrogen Liquefaction Cycle

Optimum Expanded Fraction for an Industrial, Collins-Based Nitrogen Liquefaction Cycle

Design and analysis of cascade liquefaction processes for coproducing liquid ethane and LNG

Proposal and investigation of a novel small-scale natural gas liquefaction process using diffusion absorption refrigeration technology

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