Gas Processing and Liquefaction

Chapter 6:
Hydrocarbon Gas Liquefaction
By
Abdul Halim Abdul Razik
FKKSA, UMP
Topic Outcomes:
 Describe the need for liquefying hydrocarbon gas in
meeting transcontinental demands
 Explain the common processes in liquefying
hydrocarbon gas and the considerations for power
consumption
 Describe refrigeration process and perform related
calculations (similar to Chapter 5)
 Describe important considerations in LNG plant
operation, performance and maintenance
 Discuss the LNG safety and security
LNG and Its Roles in Meeting Worldwide
Demand
• An increasing demand for natural
gas as a fuel as well as a feed for
petrochemical and chemicals
plants throughout the world.
• Natural gas has played a major
role in meeting energy demand in
North America, Western and
Eastern European countries, and
industrialized Asia due to its
availability and environmental
acceptance.
• Advantages of using natural gas
includes abundance resources
compared to crude oil, most clean
burning, efficient, economic, etc.
• Utilizations of natural gas coming
from all sectors; power
generation, industry, commercial,
domestic, transportation, etc.
 LNG Benefits
• Where pipeline transportation of natural gas is not available or impractical,
liquefaction of the natural gas is the best option.
• LNG can be used, stored or transported economically regardless any
geographical factors.
• Hence, what is LNG?
• LNG is natural gas that has been liquefied or converted to liquid form by
reducing the temperature below -161 oC at 1 atm
• The liquefaction product, cryogenic methane-rich fuel that has higher
combustion energy and produces much less emission to the environment.
• Reduces the volume of natural gas by about 600-fold ; can be stored and
transported in a huge amount compared to pipeline (overcome the supply
limitations by pipeline)
• Used for power generation, feeds to chemical plants, fuel for airplanes and
new generation rockets, ground vehicles, fuel cell.
LNG Economics and Emerging Markets
• The LNG trade has grown
steadily since the mid -1960s.
Current annual global demand
is more than 100-million metric
tons. Approximately two-thirds
is imported by Japan.
• Malaysia is the world’s third
largest exporter after Algeria
and Indonesia.
• Overall LNG1, LNG2 and LNG3
in Bintulu are producing 22.7
mmtpa.
• Bintulu is now the largest LNG
producer in the world in a
single location.
 World LNG Trade
 Producers  Buyers
Algeria : 36% Japan : 62%
Indonesia : 19% South Korea : 13%
Malaysia : 17% France : 8%
Australia : 10% Spain : 7%
Brunei : UAE 7% Belgium : 4%
And others And others
# The location where delivery # The location where
terminals are situated receiving terminal are
situated
LNG Terminals Worldwide
LNG Chain

Gas Field Shipping

Liquefaction Plant

Load Centers
Receiving Terminal
Pipeline & +
Distribution Re-gasification
Load Centers
LNG Production Facilities
Type of LNG Plants
 Natural gas liquefaction plants are generally classed as either
peak-shaving or base-load plants, depending on their size and
role.
 Peak-shaving Plant
• Peak-shave facilities are usually small (up to 0.9 million tones per
annum, mtpa)
• Used to overcome mismatches between supply and demand
• They liquefy and store excess natural gas during periods of low
demand and vaporize it at times of peak demand (winter season).
 Base-load Plant
• Usually for marine (transcontinental) transportation
• About 70 of base-load trains operating or under construction at
15 sites world wide.
• Each train capacities now typically 3.4 mtpa.
Among Multinational Companies
Involve in LNG Business…
Liquefaction Processes
• Liquefied gases are in common use for variety purposes,
e.g LNG for ocean transport, LOX is carried in rockets,
LIN for low temperature refrigerant, LPG for cooking
fuel, NGLs for gas separation/fractionation and
purification, etc.
• May be accomplished in several ways:
i) By heat exchange at constant pressure (refrigeration
system)
ii) By expansion in expander/turbine from which work is
obtained
iii) By a throttling process
Advantages of Liquefaction
 For gas separation/fractionation (according to boiling
point).

 Product purification. For example in case of LNG, it can

achieve even to 98% volume methane

 Easier for transport and storage in very large volume

 Advantage in terms of volume; liquid to gas/vapor

expansion ratio.
eg : 1 m3 of LNG = ~ 600 m3 of natural gas
: 1 m3 of liquid propane = ~ 275 m3 of gas propane
 Natural Gas Liquefaction Processes
• Prior to liquefaction, raw natural gas must be treated in
pre-treatment plant to remove impurities such as H2O
(dehydration), H2S and CO2 ( sweetening), Hg (mercury
removal), Mercaptans, Particulates, etc.
• To avoid freezing and equipment/line plugging during the
processing and formation of LNG.
• Natural gas liquefaction is accomplished by each of the
following processes/cycles or the combination of them,
i) Cascade cycle
ii) Single mixed refrigerant cycle
iii) Propane pre-cooled mixed refrigerant cycle
iv) Expansion cycle
Cascade Cycle
• Produces LNG by employing several closed-loop discrete
cooling circuits or stages.
• Each circuits is utilizing pure refrigerant and collectively
configured in order of progressively lower temperatures.
• Each circuits generally have multistage refrigerant
expansion and compression, typically operating at
different evaporation temperature levels.
• The first cooling circuit may utilizes propane, the second
circuit utilizes ethane, and the third circuit utilizes
methane as the refrigerant.
• After compression, propane is condensed with cooling
water/air, ethane is condensed with evaporating propane
and methane is condensed with evaporating ethane.
 Cascade Cycle Flow Diagram:
(Example)
Simplified Cascade Process in LNG Production
Mixed Refrigerant Cycle
• In a single mixed refrigerant process, it produces
LNG by employing a single closed-loop circuit.
• It utilizes a multi-component refrigerant e.g
nitrogen, methane, ethane, propane, butane.
• The mixed composition undergoes the steps of
condensation, expansion and recompression to
reduce the temperature of natural gas. Occurs in a
unitary collection of HEs known as “cold box”
• While in propane pre-cooling cycle, it initially
utilizes series of propane-cooled HEs in addition to
a single closed–loop circuit.
MR Cycle Flow Diagram : (Example)
Simplified Single Mixed Refrigerant
Example of MRC-LNG Plant
Expansion Cycle
• It expands natural gas from high pressure to low
pressure with a corresponding reduction in
temperature.
• As according to Joule-Thomson Effect, at which the
expansion device such as turbo-expander, liquid
turbine, and etc, must be adiabatic and reversible.
• It can be either isentropically or isenthalpically.
• It operates on the principle that gas can be compressed
to a selected pressure, cooled, then allowed to expand.
 Expansion Cycle Flow Diagram :
(Example)
AFTER- Q1
COOLER
1
2

TURBO- W2 EXPANSION
W1 COMPRESSOR 6
COMPRESSOR ENGINE
SHAFT

5
3
Q2
AFTER-
COOLER 4

FEED GAS 8 9 PRODUCT LNG

MAIN RECUPERATIVE
HEAT EXCHANGER
LNG Plant in Overall
 In the chemical process industry (CPI), there are many processes that
operate below ambient temperature.
 These processes often require heat removal from processes and heat
rejection to external agents, such as cooling water or air.
 Refrigeration systems are employed to supply low temperature
cooling, that cannot be achieved using normal cooling water
 Usually refrigeration systems are much more expensive than other
normal utilities, due to high operating cost and capital-intensive
compression trains.
 The operating costs for refrigeration systems are often dominated by
the cost of shaftwork to drive compressors.
 A subambient process (e.g LNG plant, ethylene plant, NGL plant and
etc) usually comprises of three major parts – the process, heat
exchanger network, and the refrigeration system.
Interactions in Overall LNG plant
Compression Refrigeration
• In general, there have two types of refrigeration process;
compression refrigeration (with compressor) and absorption
refrigeration (without compressor)
• In compression refrigeration, refrigeration is achieved by
vaporization at relatively low pressure of refrigerant.
• The vaporized refrigerant is compressed and is condensed by
cooling water or air and then recycled after expansion
through an expansion device (valve or turbine).
• An evaporation pressure is higher than atmospheric as to
eliminate air intake, especially when the refrigerant used is
flammable.
• Refrigerant temperature is restricted by boiling point of
refrigerant.
Refrigeration According to Carnot
Cycle
 Basically, a refrigeration cycle is a reversed heat-engine cycle.
Heat is transferred from a low temperature level to a higher one;
according to the second law of thermodynamics, this requires an
external source of energy.
 The ideal refrigerator, like the ideal heat engine operates on a
Carnot cycle. This cycle consists two isothermal steps in which the
heat, |Qc | is absorbed at the lower temperature, Tc and the heat,
|QH | is rejected at the higher temperature, TH. This cycle also has
two adiabatic steps.
 The cycle requires the addition of net work, W to the system.
 Because ∆U of the working fluid is zero for the cycle, the first law is
written;
W = |QH| - |Qc|
Refrigeration According to Carnot
Cycle Cont..
 The measure of the effectiveness of a refrigerator is its
coefficient of performance (COP), w, defined as;
w ≈ (heat absorbed at the lower temperature/net
work) = (|Qc| / W)
• And ideal work is defined by;
 Example of calculation
Cooling
water
TH

Work
Expansion

Compression

TC

Process
cooler
• A process requires 0.5 MW of cooling
• A refrigeration cycle is required to remove this heat from the process
• After compression, the refrigerant is cooled using cooling water supplied at 25 oC and returned at
30oC

Q: Estimate the annual operating costs of refrigeration if the process requires at 0, -20 & -40
o
C?

Data and assumptions:

•∆T is 5oC in the heat exchangers
•Both vaporization and condensation of the refrigerant are isothermal
•The systems operates for 8000 hours per year
LNG Plant Operation, Performance and
Maintenance
 An efficient LNG plant operation highly depends to the
power consumptions – it would rather to represent in
terms of specific power consumption (power per unit
LNG produced)
 The design, simulation and estimation of natural gas
liquefaction process for LNG plant operation began
from 1970.
 Shell corporation has simulated the cascade, mixed
refrigerant and N2 expander cycle, moreover analyzed
their advantages and disadvantages
LNG Plant Operation, Performance and
Maintenance Cont..
Several issues in describing LNG plant operation
(as well as for other plant) are thermal
efficiency, flexibility, stability, reliability and
availability as well as economics, safety and
environment considerations
Utilities are indeed required to support the
processing units in the LNG plant
Let us give more attention to the thermal
efficiency!!
Thermal Efficiency
 The refrigeration and liquefaction section is the key
element of the LNG plant.
 There are several licensed processes available with
varying degrees of application and experience (as
stated in page 325 in your textbook)
 The basic principles for cooling and liquefying the gas
using refrigerants involve matching as closely as
possible the cooling/heating curves of the process gas
and the refrigerant
 This results in a more efficient thermodynamic process
requiring less power per unit of LNG produced
LNG Safety and Security
 LNG safety in terms of LNG properties and storage
 LNG properties – follow approximately the property of
natural gas (methane)
 The potential hazard of most concern to operators of
LNG facilities is surrounding communities . It is derived
from the basic properties of natural gas.
 However, primary containment, secondary
containment, safeguard systems and separation
distance provide multilayer of protection systems
Related topics for your own readings..
• Explosion
• Vapor clouds
• Freezing liquids
• Rollover
• Rapid phase transition
• Earthquake and terrorisms (security)