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change. In its naturally occurring vapor state, natural gas is a bulky
A. THEORETICAL PART energy source, which is difficult to handle. Storage of the vapor
requires huge underground caverns or large telescoping storage
tanks. Transporting natural gas from production sources to points of
consumption necessitates large pipeline networks and a considerably
higher transportation cost (Fig. 1.) Thus, only overland or somewhat
1. INTRODUCTION shorter undersea routes can be considered. Finally, natural gas at
atmospheric pressure is too bulky to be considered as a fuel for
Natural gas is a mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons with varying transportation purposes. Liquefaction of natural gas serves to
quantities of nonhydrocarbons, which are normally considered overcome these obstacles, and permits transport over larger
impurities. Natural gas is composed mainly of methane. In addition, distances and more diverse application of liquefied natural gas
it usually contains minor quantities of heavier hydrocarbons and (LNG) as an energy source (Foss, 2007).
varying amounts of gaseous nonhydrocarbons such as nitrogen,
carbon dioxide, and hydrogen sulfide.
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2. BRIEF HISTORY OF LIQUEFIED NATURAL the distance to England as Venezuela. With the start-up of the 260
million cubic feet per day (MMcfd) Arzew GL4Z or Camel plant in
GAS 1964, the United Kingdom became the world's first LNG importer
and Algeria the first LNG exporter. Algeria has since become a
major world supplier of natural gas as LNG.
Natural gas liquefaction dates back to the 19th century when
British chemist and physicist Michael Faraday experimented with After the concept was shown to work in the United Kingdom,
liquefying different types of gases, including natural gas. German additional liquefaction plants and import terminals were constructed
engineer Karl Von Linde built the first practical compressor in both the Atlantic and Pacific regions. Four marine terminals were
refrigeration machine in Munich in 1873. The first LNG plant was built in the United States between 1971 and 1980. They are in Lake
built in West Virginia in 1912 and began operation in 1917. The first Charles (operated by CMS Energy), Everett, Massachusetts
commercial liquefaction plant was built in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1941. (operated by SUEZ through their Distrigas subsidiary), Elba Island,
The LNG was stored in tanks at atmospheric pressure. The Georgia (operated by El Paso Energy), and Cove Point, Maryland
liquefaction of natural gas raised the possibility of its transportation (operated by Dominion Energy). After reaching a peak receipt
to distant destinations. In January 1959, the world's first LNG volume of 253 BCF (billion cubic feet) in 1979, which represented
tanker, The Methane Pioneer, a converted World War ll liberty 1.3 percent of U.S. gas demand, LNG imports declined because a
freighter containing five, 7,000 barrel equivalent aluminum gas surplus developed in North America and price disputes occurred
prismatic tanks with balsa wood supports and insulation of plywood with Algeria, the sole LNG provider to the U.S. at that time. The
and urethane, carried an LNG cargo from Lake Charles, Louisiana to Elba Island and Cove Point receiving terminals were subsequently
Canvey Island, United Kingdom. This event demonstrated that large mothballed in 1980 and the Lake Charles and the Everett terminals
quantities of liquefied natural gas could be transported safely across suffered from very low utilization.
the ocean. Following the successful performance of The Methane
Pioneer, the British Gas Council proceeded with plans to implement The first exports of LNG from the U.S. to Asia occurred in 1969
a commercial project to import LNG from Venezuela to Canvey when Alaskan LNG was sent to Japan. Alaskan LNG is derived
Island. However, before the commercial agreements could be from natural gas that is produced by ConocoPhillips and Marathon
finalized, large quantities of natural gas were discovered in Libya from fields in Cook Inlet in the southern portion of the state of
and in the gigantic Hassi R' Mel field in Algeria, which are only half Alaska, liquefied at the Kenai Peninsula LNG plant (one of the
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oldest, continuously operated LNG plants in the world) and shipped However, because of the high critical pressure of methane, LNG
to Japan. In 1999, the first Atlantic Basin LNG liquefaction plant in must be produced commercially by refrigeration.
the western hemisphere came on production in Trinidad. This event,
A number of processes have been commercialized for LNG
coupled with an increase in demand for natural gas in the U.S.
production (Martin, Pigourier, & Fischer, 2009). Commercial
particularly for power generation and an increase in U.S. natural gas processes can be distinguished into two categories:
prices, resulted in a renewed interest in the U.S. market for LNG. As
a result, the two mothballed LNG receiving terminals have been Cascade Processes
reactivated. Elba Island was reactivated in 2001. In October 2002, Mixed Refrigerant Processes
the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) gave approval
to Dominion Resources for its plans to re-open Cove Point LNG
facility in 2003; first shipments to the reactivated terminal were
received in fall 2006. In April 2005 the world's first offshore, ship- Cascade
based regasification facility was set in operation in the Gulf of Processes
Mexico by Excelerate Energy. Additionally, a number of approved, LNG Processes With pre-cooling
planned, and proposed projects are under development. Mixed
Refrigerant
Processes
Without pre-
cooling
3. LNG PRODUCTION-INDUSTRIAL PROCESSES
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SMR Process (also refered as PRICO) asnitrogen and methane. Such a recompression penalty cannot be
Linde Process avoided without a certain degree of separation of the refrigerant
C3MR Process (also refered as APCI) developed by Air components such as occurs in precooled mixed refrigerant processes
Products (Hammer, Lubcke, & Kettner, 2012).
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a closer approach. However, the power is not the same on all three temperature trajectory instead of at a constant evaporating point and
cycles, unlike the new cascade. Plate-fin exchangers are used on the this has large benefits for the total process. The refrigeration effect
first cycle, and spiral wound exchangers on the two colder cycles. will be distributed over a range of temperatures and accordingly the
overall temperature difference between the natural gas and mixed
refrigerant is small. Small driving temperature differences give
operation nearer to reversibility; leading to a higher thermodynamic
efficiency. Simultaneously, the power requirement will be lower and
the entire machinery smaller (Finn, 2009 ). Some of MRC
technologies are; Single mixture process (SMR), Mixed refrigerant
with propane pre-cooling (C3/MR), Dual mixed refrigerant process
(DMR), Mixed and AP-X. Most existing natural gas liquefaction
plants operate on the mixed refrigerant processes, with the propane
pre-cooled mixed refrigerant process being the most widely used.
3.2. MIXED REFRIGERANT PROCESSES The PRICO SMR process is the simplest of the four processes
studied. The process was first used in 1981 at the Skikda LNG plant
in Algeria. Three liquefaction trains using the process have been
The mixed refrigerant cycle (MRC) uses a single mixed built and operated over the last 23 years. Fig. 2 shows a simplified
flow sheet, which consists of a single LNG heat exchanger, a
refrigerant instead of multiple pure refrigerants as the cascade cycle.
separate feed/product and refrigerant system, a compressor with an
The mixed refrigerant normally consists of nitrogen, ethane, associated after-cooler, suction scrubbers a separator and pump. The
propane, butane and pentane. Such a mixture evaporates over a SMR process has the lowest equipment count compared to the other
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processes. In the SMR process the feed gas enters the LNG
exchanger at feed conditions and is cooled against the cold
refrigerant stream to the required LNG storage conditions of less
than -155 oC. The cold low-pressure refrigerant stream also acts to
condense the high-pressure refrigerant stream prior to the pressure
let down stage that provides the necessary heat exchanger cold side
temperature differential.
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150oC to -162oC by mixed refrigerant (MR) flowing down on the
shell-side. To pre-cool the natural gas, propane is compressed to a
high enough pressure such that it can be condensed by ambient air
or cooling water. Liquid propane is then let down in pressure in a
series of stages, further reducing its temperature and allowing it to
provide refrigeration to the natural gas.
The propane is also used to pre-cool the mixed refrigerant which has
been compressed after exiting the bottom of the MCHE. After pre-
cooling, the partially condensed mixed refrigerant is separated in a
high pressure separator. The vapor and liquid streams pass through
separate tube circuits in the MCHE where they are further cooled,
liquefied, and sub-cooled. The two sub-cooled streams are let down
in pressure, further reducing their temperatures. As the mixed
refrigerant vaporizes and flows downward on the shell side of the
MCHE, it provides refrigeration for liquefying and sub-cooling the
natural gas. The vaporized mixed refrigerant is then recompressed.
The use of a single component pre-cooling fluid with a staged Fig. 6 C3/MR Process Simplified Flow Diagram
pressure let-down provides for an efficient, easy to control pre-
cooling step. The use of a mixed refrigerant for liquefaction and
sub-cooling in a single exchanger permits boiling of the refrigerant
over a temperature range, leading to high efficiency when it is most 3.2.4. APX PROCESS
crucial. In this way, the C3MR cycle minimizes the number of In this process (Fig.7), a cycle similar to the precooled mixed-
equipment items and control loops while maintaining the highest refrigerant process is used to precool and liquefy the LNG.
efficiency on the market. These advantages lead to minimal plant However, the liquefied LNG is subcooled in a nitrogen refrigeration
complexity, easier operation, and high availability (M. J. Roberts, closed-loop process cycle. Nitrogen gas is compressed, cooled to
2004). near ambient conditions with cooling water or ambient air, and then
further cooled to cryogenic conditions by expansion to lower
pressure. The gaseous nitrogen is then used to subcool LNG, after
which it is returned to be recompressed, completing the refrigeration
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cycle. By employing the nitrogen refrigeration cycle to subcool the consumer fuel, enhance the calorific value of the natural gas and
LNG, the mixed-refrigerant only has to cool the LNG to about -115 avoid pipelines and equipment corrosion.
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C. This allows for a larger production capacity without a substantial
increase in equipment size. The technologies that are widely used to treat the natural gas
include absorption processes, adsorption processes, cryogenic
condensation and membranes. The technologies and their
improvement have been developed over the years to treat certain
types of gas with the aim of optimizing capital cost and operating
cost, meet gas specifications and environmental purposes.
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and the anticipated type of processing or further use of the separated
LNG Typical Composition components are quite varied. As a result, a choice of many different
Methane Others processesis available (Kohl & Riesenfeld, 1975).
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partial pressure have to be removed to very low 4.2. DEHYDRATION
concentrations. Chemical solvents will not remove
The sweet gas leaving the acid gas removal step is still saturated
mercaptans down to low levels due to the low solubility of
with water. Especially when the gas will be used as a feed for LNG
these components. An advantage however is that there is
production, it is essential that water should be completely removed
minimum co-absorption of hydrocarbons. Due to the
in order to prevent hydrates formation.
chemical reaction between the solvent and CO2 and H2S, the
regeneration energy requirements are normally higher than Cryogenic Dehydration. The wet gas is cooled until the
for a physical solvent. components to be removed precipitate by condensationor formation
of hydrates
Mixed solvents, are a mixture of a chemical and a physical
solvent. The most widely known process is the Shell Sulfinol Dehydration by Absorption Processes. Standardized
Process, which applies a mixture of sulfolane, water and dehydration plants using glycol absorption are employed most
DIPA or or MDEA. widely. In the absorber, glycol and gas are brought in contact
counter currently. Triethylene glycol (TEG) is used in preference to
other glycols (mono- and diethylene glycols) because of its high
Adsorption processes for the removal of hydrogen sulfide and absorption capacity for water vapor, its low vapor pressure (small
carbon dioxide are used in natural gas treatment when only small losses from evaporation), and its high thermal stability
amounts of acidic components must be removed. Activated charcoal
and zeolitic molecular sieves are used as adsorbents. Molecular Adsorptive Dehydration. In adsorptive dehydration the gas is
sieves are used widely for the purification of natural gas when it is brought in contact with molecular sieves, silica gel, or SORBEAD
used as feedstock for a cryogenic plant for production of liquefied (i.e., Na2O- containing SiO2 ). Dew points < -70 oC are attainable
gas. In these plants, even low levels of carbon dioxide cause with adsorption plants. This is particularly necessary for cryogenic
problems because the gas freezes in the low-temperature unit and plants and liquid natural gas (LNG) plants, where traces of water
can lead to blockage. and carbon dioxide can lead to blockage by ice formation.
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4.3. MERCURY REMOVAL
Membrane Processes (under development)
Mercury removal is normally done with a fixed bed adsorption
step. Commonly used adsorbents are sulphur impregnated carbons,
in which the mercury reacts with sulphur to form the stable mercuric
sulphide. A standard molecular sieve will also absorb Hg but
regeneration is impossible. An alternative approach is the silver-
impregnated molecular sieve (UOP HgSIV). In principle this
molecular sieve can be regenerated, however the release of mercury
from the molecular sieve bed would require dedicated material
selections in the regeneration gas treating section.
temperature distillation.
absorbent.
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diagram. Computer-aided process design programs, often referred to
B. MODEL as process simulators, flow sheet simulators, or flow sheeting
packages, are widely used in process design.
1. INTRODUCTION
Aspen HYSYS by Aspen Technology is one of the major
process simulators that are widely used in chemical and
Propane precooling mixed component refrigerant process thermodynamic process industries today. Aspen HYSYS is the
(C3/MR) represents 80% of the commercial used processes. The industry leading simulation software for oil & gas, refining, and
process has proven to be efficient, flexible, reliable, and cost engineering processes. With an extensive array of unit operations,
competitive (M. J. Roberts, 2004). specialized work environments, and a robust solver, modeling in
Aspen HYSYS V8 enables the user to (Sittler & Ajikutira, 2013):
For these reasons the a C3MR process, using synthetic natural
gas (SNG) from the methanisation process, was selected to be Improve equipment design and performance
Monitor safety and operational issues in the plant
simulated. Simulation of the process has been conducted using
Optimize processing capacity and operating conditions
Aspen Hysys® version V.8. process simulation software. The PR Identify energy savings opportunities and reduce GHG
equation of state is used for thermodynamic properties calculations emissions
both for the natural gas and the refrigerants. Perform economic evaluation to realize savings in the
process design
2. ASPEN HYSYS SIMULATOR
3. THERMODYNAMIC MODEL SELECTION
Chemical process modeling is a computer modeling technique
used in chemical engineering process design. It typically involves
using purpose-built software to define a system of interconnected An equation of state (EOS) is a functional relationship between
components, which are then solved so that the steady-state or state variables — usually a complete set of such variables. Most
dynamic behavior of the system can be predicted. The system EOS are written to express functional relationships between P, T and
components and connections are represented as a Process Flow V. For simulation of a LNG production process, a reliable equation
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of state (EoS) is needed for thermodynamic data predictions.
literature.
In the petroleum industry, two cubic EoS are generally used: the
SRK and the PR EoS (Ahmed, 1997): Where:
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4. FEED • Water Separation
In the current process, synthetic natural gas (SNG) from the
methanisation process is used as a feed to the unit. The composition Purification • CO2 Removal
of the feed is shown in Table 1. Section • Dehydration
• Nitrogen Rejection
Mole Fractions
H2 0.0260
Compressor • Increasing the pressure of
Train Section the refrigerant mixture
CO2 0.0170
Table 1 SNG Feed Composition
Liquefaction • Cooling the gas down to its
Section liquefaction temperature
5. PROCESS DESCRIPTION Fig. 9 Process Description Overview
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phase separator. After this step, the gas appears the following
composition (Table 2):
Mole Fractions
CH4 0.9162
N2 0.0154
H2O 0.0024
H2 0.0400
CO2 0.0261
Table 2 SNG Composition after H2O Separation
% composition
CH4 95,82
H2 4,18
Table 3 SNG Composition after Purification
Fig. 10 Purification Section
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5.2. COMPRESSOR TRAIN SECTION temperature – enthalpy warming curve of the mixed refrigerant
closely tracks the natural gas cooling curve in the main heat
In this section, a train of two compressors is used to increase in
exchangers This reduces the energy demand of the process. The
two steps the pressure of the refrigerant mixture up to 17 bars.
mole fraction of refrigerants' composition were obtained either by
trial and error method based on cooling curves appeared in the main
heat exchangers.
Mole Fraction
Methane 0.32
Ethane 0.33
Fig. 11 Compressor Train Section
Butane 0.1
5.2.1. MIXED REFRIGERANT COMPOSITION Nitrogen 0.25
Table 4 Mixed Refrigerant Composition
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refrigerant cycle is used. Furthermore, propane is also used to cool Although refrigerant cooling can take place in several cooling
down the refrigerant mixture to -12 oC. Then, the cool refrigerant stages, only one stage is shown in the model for simplicity.
mixture enters a separator where it is separated to gas and liquid
phase. Finally, the two streams along with the pre-cooled SNG enter 5.4. LIQUEFACTION SECTION
the liquefaction section.
In this section, three fin plate cryogenic heat exchangers are used
to cool down the SNG to -165 oC which is the liquefaction
temperature.
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Fig. 14 SNG Liquefaction Section
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As mentioned above, the desired result is that the the
temperature – enthalpy warming curve of the mixed refrigerant
closely tracks the natural gas cooling curve in the main heat
exchangers This reduces the energy demand of the process. The hot-
cold composite curves for the three heat exchangers are shown
below.
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6. ENERGY ANALYSIS Molar Flow 62,2 kgmole/h
It is known that the main energy demand for liquefaction Mass Flow 961,4 kg/h
processes is the energy consumed at the compressors. In the current
process four compressors exist: HHV Mass 55,61 MJ/kg
K-100 and K-101, both used at MR Compressor train (High Heating Value of
section Stream “Natural Gas to
LNG Section” )
K-102 used for compressing propane at MR propane
cooling cycle and LHV Mass 50,42 MJ/kg
K-103 used at propane pre-cooling section of SNG
(Low Heating Value of
Stream “Natural Gas to
The power consumption for all the compressors is shown below:
LNG Section”)
Energy Demand for Compression Table 6 Properties of SNG Entering the Liquefaction Section
Compressor
K-100 334,1 kW
K-101 301,3 kW
K-102 22,55 kW
K-103 275,6 kW
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Fig. 18 C3MR Process Flow Sheet
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7. DYNAMIC MODELING Simple shell-and-tube heat exchangers are used instead of fin
plate cryogenic heat exchangers, in order to solve the case with the
―Dynamic Assistant‖ tool, provided by Hysys.
As a final step, an effort to simulate the current process in
Dynamic Mode was made.
It is vital that the LNG product has a certain temperature
A simplified model of the C3MR process was built with Aspen
( about -162 oC) at atmospheric pressure and the mixed refrigerant
Hysys in Dynamic Mode (Fig. 19).
enters the system at a constant pressure. Thus, three IC controllers
(PIC 100, PIC 101 and TIC 100) are used to control the pressure of
the reftrigerant mixture, the pressure of the LNG Product and the
temperature of the LNG Product respectively.
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8. CONCLUSIONS Firoozabadi. (1989). Thermodynamics of Hydrocarbon Reservoirs.
McGraw-Hill.
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Sittler, L., & Ajikutira, D. (2013). Jump Start: Aspen HYSYS® V8.0.
AspenTech.
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