U.S. patent application number 13/675253 was filed with the patent office on 2014-05-15 for method and apparatus for high purity liquefied natural gas.
The applicant listed for this patent is Ned Phillip Baudat, William George Brown, Bill Roger Minton. Invention is credited to Ned Phillip Baudat, William George Brown, Bill Roger Minton.
Application Number | 20140130542 13/675253 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 50680369 |
Filed Date | 2014-05-15 |
United States Patent
Application |
20140130542 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Brown; William George ; et
al. |
May 15, 2014 |
Method And Apparatus for High Purity Liquefied Natural Gas
Abstract
A novel method and system for liquefying and distilling natural
gas into high purity liquid methane (LNG) and NGL product streams.
Heat exchangers and distillation towers are configured to produce
high purity liquefied natural gas (LNG) and NGL product streams,
while also rejecting excess nitrogen contained in the inlet gas
stream, utilizing liquid nitrogen as the process refrigerant. A
molecular sieve pretreatment system is configured to utilize the
vaporized nitrogen stream for regeneration of the molecular sieve
beds which are designed for removing water and carbon dioxide from
the inlet gas stream
Inventors: |
Brown; William George;
(Bryan, TX) ; Minton; Bill Roger; (Houston,
TX) ; Baudat; Ned Phillip; (New Braunfels,
TX) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
Brown; William George
Minton; Bill Roger
Baudat; Ned Phillip |
Bryan
Houston
New Braunfels |
TX
TX
TX |
US
US
US |
|
|
Family ID: |
50680369 |
Appl. No.: |
13/675253 |
Filed: |
November 13, 2012 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
62/612 |
Current CPC
Class: |
F25J 3/0257 20130101;
F25J 2205/04 20130101; F25J 2200/02 20130101; F25J 2205/66
20130101; F25J 2270/42 20130101; F25J 2260/42 20130101; F25J 3/0233
20130101; F25J 2270/12 20130101; F25J 2215/04 20130101; F25J
2200/70 20130101; F25J 2270/904 20130101; F25J 2210/42 20130101;
F25J 3/0209 20130101; F25J 3/0238 20130101; F25J 2200/74 20130101;
F25J 3/0214 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
62/612 |
International
Class: |
F25J 1/00 20060101
F25J001/00; F25J 3/02 20060101 F25J003/02 |
Claims
1. A method of processing a hydrocarbon gas stream comprising an
initial amount of methane, an initial amount of ethane and heavier
hydrocarbon components, and an initial amount of contaminant
comprising nitrogen, the method comprising: introducing the
hydrocarbon gas stream to a first heat exchange unit; introducing a
first stream of nitrogen refrigerant to at least the first heat
exchange unit to aid in cooling of the hydrocarbon gas; flowing the
cooled hydrocarbon gas from the first heat exchange unit to a
separator and separating a liquid portion from a vapor portion;
flowing the liquid portion from the separator to a demethanizer;
liquefying all of the vapor portion from the separator by heat
exchange with at least a second nitrogen refrigerant stream in a
second heat exchange unit to achieve total liquefaction and
subcooling, thereby forming all of the vapor portion from the
separator into a totally subcooled liquid reflux stream to the
demethanizer, wherein the first and second nitrogen refrigerant
stream may be dependent or independent streams; flowing a vapor
product from the demethanizer, wherein as the vapor product exits
the demethanizer it comprises essentially all of the initial amount
of methane and essentially all of the initial amount of
contaminant; flowing a liquid NGL product from the demethanizer,
wherein as the liquid NGL product exits the demethanizer it
comprises essentially all of the initial amount of ethane and
heavier hydrocarbon components; liquefying the vapor product of the
demethanizer; flowing the liquefied vapor product to a nitrogen
recovery unit; flowing a liquid LNG stream from the nitrogen
recovery unit; flowing a vapor contaminant stream from the nitrogen
recovery unit; combining the vapor contaminant stream from the
nitrogen recovery unit into the second nitrogen refrigerant stream;
and, cooling the liquid LNG stream from the nitrogen recovery unit
in the second heat exchange unit.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising passing the
hydrocarbon gas stream through a pretreatment system prior to
introducing the hydrocarbon gas to the first heat exchanger, and
further comprising vaporizing at least a portion of the first or
second nitrogen refrigerant streams and regenerating the
pretreatment system with the vaporized nitrogen refrigerant.
3. The method of claim 2, further comprising regenerating the
pretreatment system at a temperature of 400 degrees F. or less with
the vaporized nitrogen refrigerant.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the NGL product contains a
percentage of ethane and methane.
5. The method of claim 4, further comprising recovering greater
than 99% of the ethane from the NGL product
6. The method of claim 4, wherein the NGL product contains less
than 0.5 liquid volume percent methane.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein liquefying the vapor' product of
the first pressurized distillation tower comprises forming an LNG
stream containing a percentage of methane.
8. The method of claim, wherein the LNG stream contains less than
0.1% ethane.
9. The method of claim 1, further comprising forming the LNG stream
containing a percentage of nitrogen.
10. (canceled)
11. (canceled)
12. (canceled)
13. The method of claim 1, further comprising further cooling LNG
of the LNG stream with the first or second nitrogen refrigerant
streams prior to the LNG being stored in a storage unit.
14. The method of claim 1, further comprising pumping the LNG of
the LNG stream to a transportation pipeline pressure, vaporizing
the LNG, and transporting to sale.
15. The method of claim 1, further comprising the ability to
liquefy the inlet hydrocarbons gas into LNG at a pressure of 350
psig or less.
16. The method of claim 1, further comprising vaporizing at least
one of the nitrogen refrigerant streams through at least one of the
heat exchange units, the demethanizer, the nitrogen recovery unit
pressurized distillation towers, or a combination thereof.
17. The method of claim 16, further comprising recycling at least a
portion of the vaporized nitrogen refrigerant for reclamation and
re-use as nitrogen refrigerant.
18. The method of claim 16, further comprising venting at least a
portion of the vaporized nitrogen refrigerant to the
atmosphere.
19-21. (canceled)
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE
[0001] This application is a continuation in part to U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 12/765,750, filed on Apr. 22, 2010, priority
of which is claimed herein and the entirety of which is hereby
incorporated by reference.
DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART
[0002] The present application relates to liquefaction of natural
gas, more particularly, to a more environmentally friendly method
and system for providing high purity Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)
with reduced cost by utilizing liquid nitrogen (LIN) as the LNG
condensing medium and process refrigerant.
[0003] Note that the points discussed below may reflect the
hindsight gained from the disclosed inventions, and are not
necessarily admitted to be prior art.
[0004] The advent of high cost in transportation fuels such as
gasoline and diesel (based on high petroleum costs) and the
coincident very low cost in natural gas has prompted the
transportation industry to switch fuels to compressed and liquefied
natural gas. Besides the lower cost, another benefit of natural gas
as a fuel is that it is a cleaner and safer burning fuel, as it is
lighter than the air.
[0005] Natural gas is generally converted into liquefied form for
storage and transportation. Liquefying reduces the volume of
natural gas by a factor of 600, allowing for high efficiency and
reduced cost in these areas. However, the liquefaction of natural
gas into a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) product is currently
performed using large and capital expenditure intensive equipment.
The inlet gas is typically treated with an amine facility and
molecular sieves to remove excess sulfur, CO.sub.2 and water; cold
scrubber columns in the cold box are used to remove heavy
hydrocarbons sufficiently to prevent freezing and fouling in the
passages of the cryogenic heat exchangers. The cryogenic
refrigeration used in conventional LNG facilities can be provided
by various technologies but generally utilize a refrigerant that
requires compression, heat rejection using large air coolers or
cooling water, expansion, vaporization of proprietary refrigerants,
etc. The typical natural gas liquefier must be constructed in a
large scale to be economical. More importantly, the LNG from a
typical liquefier will generally only meet an industrial or
commercial grade standard sufficient for gas utility of a power
plant use, not sufficient high quality enough for vehicle use.
[0006] The transportation industry requires a LNG product that has
a much higher concentration of methane and lower concentrations of
ethane, propane, butanes, pentanes, hexanes, etc. than industrial
or commercial grade LNG. Also a more distributed production of LNG,
in smaller quantities, is preferred to achieve a higher degree of
market penetration by reducing cost in LNG fuel transportation. The
cost of trucking LNG fuel from a large distant LNG facility is
prohibitive.
[0007] There is a need to produce high quality LNG in an
environmentally friendly way as well as at a reduced cost. There is
also a need to recover other components, such as ethane and heavier
hydrocarbon components from natural gas as a Natural Gas Liquids
(NGL product).
[0008] Nitrogen is the most abundant element in air and is
distilled, purified and liquefied in air separation facilities
throughout the World, making it generally available anywhere a LNG
Plant is built. The cryogenic properties of liquid nitrogen render
it a much safer and environmentally friendlier alternative
refrigerant to the current refrigerants used in the liquefying and
recovery of natural gas. A system and method is needed to take
advantage of these properties of liquid nitrogen.
SUMMARY
[0009] The present application discloses new approaches to take
advantage of a commonly available and widely distributed industrial
gas, nitrogen in liquid form. The invention takes advantage of
liquid nitrogen (LIN) for use as a refrigerant for liquefaction of
natural gas (LNG) and to recover other components as natural gas
liquid products (NGL).
[0010] The system uses liquid nitrogen refrigerant for the purpose
of assisting in the total liquefaction of an inlet hydrocarbon gas
stream and the distillation of said liquid stream(s) into Natural
Gas Liquids (NGL's) and vehicle quality Liquefied Natural Gas
(LNG). The system recovers >99% of the ethane (C2) component
into the NGL product stream, while meeting all pipeline
specifications for other contaminants. The NGL product is also
known as Y-Grade product. The liquid nitrogen refrigerant is
capable of sub-cooling the reflux stream to the distillation tower
(Demethanizer), resulting in an overhead vapor product stream that
contains <0.1% of the C2 component.
[0011] The pretreatment system can be regenerated using the
vaporized refrigerant, which is then vented safely to the
atmosphere or recycled for re-use. The volume of nitrogen is
sufficient to the extent that the regeneration of the pretreatment
system can be performed at significantly lower temperatures than
what is typically seen for pretreatment systems. The pretreatment
system does not require a Regeneration Gas Cooler or a Regeneration
Gas Scrubber as part of the pretreatment system. High temperature
switching valves are no longer required for the pretreatment
system.
[0012] The disclosed system can be utilized to remove light end
contaminants (such as nitrogen) from the LNG product stream (to
meet pipeline and transport specifications) through use of a
secondary fractionation column (NRU Column). Liquid refrigerant can
be used as the condensing medium in the NRU column condenser.
Condenser may be integral or external to column. Light end
contaminant removal system (NRU) can be operated such that
hydrocarbon content in the overhead vapor stream is <0.1%, while
providing a bottoms liquid product that contains as little or as
much contaminant as desired.
[0013] The liquid LNG product can be further sub-cooled, using
liquid refrigerant as the cooling source, before being fed to LNG
storage. The liquid LNG product can be pumped to pipeline pressure
before being vaporized in the process exchanger and sent to gas
sales. The need for residue gas compression can be eliminated. The
system allows for fully integrated heat exchange using Process Heat
Exchangers and a minimal number of other pieces of process
equipment, thus maintaining a minimal Plot Area. And since all feed
streams to the Demethanizer are liquid, the tower is smaller and
there is no need for a "bell section" as is typical with other
process designs.
[0014] The system does not use any turbo expander machinery or any
equipment typically associated with this type of gas processing
facility. The entire gas stream can be liquefied at relatively low
pressures (250-350 psig preferred), allowing inlet compression
requirements to be reduced 30% to 100% compared to other typical
processes used for LNG and NGL recovery. As the refrigerant system
is an "open loop" design with the refrigerant as a consumable,
there is no need for refrigerant compression within the plant
design. Vaporized refrigerant and/or nitrogen from the NRU overhead
can be captured and routed back to the refrigerant supplier for
reclamation. The system provides almost a 100 percent recovery of
all components while minimizing energy input and reducing overall
atmospheric emissions. This invention can also apply to recovery of
ethane plus without recovering methane (LNG) as a liquid. As will
be recognized by those skilled in the art, the innovative concepts
described in the present application can be modified and varied
over a tremendous range of applications, and accordingly the scope
of patented subject matter is not limited by any of the specific
exemplary teachings given. It is intended to embrace all such
alternatives, modifications and variations that fall within the
spirit and broad scope of the appended claims.
[0015] This method and system will meet and exceed all of the
functions of a typical large LNG facility but on a smaller scale.
This production system eliminates the processes of compression,
expansion of special refrigerants, recycling of regeneration gas,
etc. from the liquefaction and fractionation process and takes
advantage of the low cost LIN from the air separation facilities.
Being an inert gas, a process that utilizes nitrogen refrigeration
may be regarded as inherently safer than plants that use flammable
and explosive liquid hydrocarbon refrigerants.
[0016] In one embodiment, a system for liquefying and distilling
natural gas includes a molecular sieve pretreatment system that
utilizes vaporized nitrogen refrigerant for regeneration. The
pretreatment system is designed to remove water and carbon dioxide
(CO.sub.2) from the inlet gas in order to prevent freezing in the
LNG liquefaction process. The system also includes heat exchangers
and towers that provide heat exchange and fractionation of LNG (to
reach over 99% methane purity), to recover other NGL products and
reject nitrogen from the product streams.
[0017] In one embodiment, a system for liquefying and distilling
natural gas includes a NGL processing facility to further store and
recover other natural gas components as liquid products (NGL).
[0018] In one embodiment, a Nitrogen Rejection Unit (NRU) is
designed to remove nitrogen from the LNG product. Recovered
nitrogen gas from the NRU may be recycled into the liquid nitrogen
feed stream.
[0019] In one embodiment, a system for liquefying and distilling
natural gas allows for the recovery of more than 99% of the
contained ethane, and also allows for the recovery of other natural
gas components as a liquid NGL product that contains less than 0.5
LV % methane in ethane.
[0020] In the present system, the use of vaporized nitrogen
refrigerant for the regeneration of the pre-treatment system
eliminates the requirement of a Regeneration Gas Cooler or a
Regeneration Gas Scrubber typically found in a conventional
system.
[0021] Because nitrogen is environmentally safe, the system can
operate under an "open loop" design, and the need for refrigerant
compression within the plant design can therefore be eliminated.
However, the nitrogen can also be recycled back to a Nitrogen
Liquefier or other system for reuse.
[0022] The present system will provide almost a 100% recovery of
all components of natural gas while minimizing energy input and
reducing overall atmospheric emissions.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0023] The disclosed application will be described with reference
to the accompanying drawings, which show important sample
embodiments of the invention and which are incorporated in the
specification hereof by reference, wherein:
[0024] FIG. 1 schematically shows an exemplary process for the
condensation, distilling and fractionation of natural gas to
produce high quality LNG and pipeline quality Y-Grade NGL product,
along with rejection of nitrogen from the LNG product, using liquid
nitrogen as a refrigerant in accordance with this application.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF SAMPLE EMBODIMENTS
[0025] The numerous innovative teachings of the present application
will be described with particular reference to presently preferred
embodiments (by way of example, and not of limitation). The present
application describes several embodiments, and none of the
statements below should be taken as limiting the claims
generally.
[0026] For simplicity and clarity of illustration, the drawing
figures illustrate the general manner of construction, and
description and details of well-known features and techniques may
be omitted to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the invention.
Additionally, elements in the drawing figures are not necessarily
drawn to scale, some areas or elements may be expanded to help
improve understanding of embodiments of the invention.
[0027] The terms "first," "second," "third," "fourth," and the like
in the description and the claims, if any, may be used for
distinguishing between similar elements and not necessarily for
describing a particular sequential or chronological order. It is to
be understood that the terms so used are interchangeable.
Furthermore, the terms "comprise," "include," "have," and any
variations thereof, are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusions,
such that a process, method, article, apparatus, or composition
that comprises a list of elements is not necessarily limited to
those elements, but may include other elements not expressly listed
or inherent to such process, method, article, apparatus, or
composition.
[0028] The necessary materials and facilities for gas feeding and
gas pipes, heat exchange material, controlling valves are known
arts in the field. Other enabling descriptions may be found in the
US Patent Application Publication US 2011/0259044 A1 the entirety
of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
[0029] FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a natural gas
liquefaction system 100 that includes a molecular sieve
pretreatment system 101, liquefaction heat exchanger system 103 NB,
cold separator 105, demethanizer 107 and nitrogen rejection unit
109.
[0030] The molecular sieve pretreatment system 101 is designed to
remove water and up to two percent (2%) carbon dioxide (CO2) from
the inlet gas in order to prevent freezing in the LNG liquefaction
process. Inlet gas 1 enters the Inlet Gas Filter/Coalescer to
remove any possible solids materials and/or entrained liquids that
may be contained in the feed gas 1.
[0031] The pretreatment system 101 uses molecular sieve beds and is
regenerated by vaporized nitrogen refrigerant. Due to the volume
and mass of nitrogen available for regeneration, only minimal heat
needs to be added to fully regenerate the mol sieves.
[0032] The treated inlet gas 2 exits the molecular sieve vessel,
then flows to one of the Dust Filters which remove molecular sieve
fines. The filtered gas 2 then flows to the liquefaction plant.
[0033] The sieve beds are regenerated by the vaporized nitrogen
refrigerant stream 3. The methane filled beds are first
depressured, with the methane gas being routed through the
Regeneration Gas Purge Compressor and back to the inlet of the
Inlet Gas Filter/Coalescer. Once the pretreatment bed has been
depressured, a slip stream of nitrogen gas stream 3 is introduced
into the bed to act as a system purge, to remove the last remnants
of methane. The purge nitrogen/methane gas is then routed through
the Regeneration Gas Purge Compressor and sent back to the entrance
of the plant. After the purge is complete, the full stream of
nitrogen regeneration gas 3 is routed to the Regeneration Gas
Heater where it is heated to between 200.degree. F. and 400.degree.
F. The heated nitrogen gas stream 3 then flows through the bed,
stripping the adsorbed water and CO.sub.2. The vaporized nitrogen
stream 3 is also used to cool the bed after regeneration. The
exiting nitrogen gas stream may be vented directly to atmosphere
with no environmental impacts. Alternatively, the nitrogen could
flow to a Regeneration Gas Cooler and on to a Nitrogen Recycle
Compressor where it is compressed and cooled for return to the Air
Separation Plant/Nitrogen Liquefier.
[0034] The inlet gas 2 from pretreatment is chilled and partially
condensed in the first process heat exchanger(s) system 103 NB,
exchanging heat with several product and process streams, before
being pressure controlled to the Cold Separator 105. The vapor
portion stream 4 off the Cold Separator 105 flows to the
Demethanizer Reflux Condenser where the stream is condensed and
sub-cooled then fed to the top of the Demethanizer 107. Cold
liquids from the Cold Separator 105 are flashed, via level control,
and are routed to an intermediate point of the Demethanizer 107.
The vapor from this stream provides additional stripping gas to the
upper sections of the tower and the liquids provide additional
reflux to the lower section of the Demethanizer.
[0035] The Demethanizer 107 is a distillation tower with multiple
sections that operates at approximately 250 psig. The tower is
provided with a Side Reboiler and Bottom Reboiler. These exchangers
are provided heat by the feed gas stream. The sub-cooled liquid
reflux from Demethanizer Reflux Condenser allows the system to
recover more than 99% of the contained ethane in the bottom
product, while still generating an NGL product that contains less
than 0.5 liquid volume percent (LV %) methane/ethane. The vapor
overhead from the Demethanizer is more than 99% methane, dependent
on the nitrogen content in the inlet gas 2.
[0036] Through utilization of multiple pass heat exchange in the
heat exchangers 103 NB, and distillation/fractionation in the
Demethanizer 107, pretreated inlet gas 2 is condensed, fractionated
and distilled into a high quality overhead methane product 50 and a
bottoms NGL liquid product 52. An example operation gas flow
process is as follows. Between the Pretreatment System 101, heat
exchanger system 103 NB, Cold Separator system 105, Demethanizer
107 and Nitrogen Rejection Unit (NRU) 109 several flow loops are
formed. Inlet gas 2 from the Pretreatment System 101 is routed to
the first Heat Exchanger 103A, where it is partially condensed
using process streams and nitrogen refrigerant. The flow of vapor 4
out of the Cold Separator 105 is maintained by use of a temperature
control valve around the first Heat Exchanger 103A. Process streams
used to condense the inlet gas 2 in Heat Exchanger 103A include the
Demethanizer side reboiler 30 and bottom reboiler 20 streams, the
Residue Gas stream 51, the Y-Grade Liquid Product stream 52 and
nitrogen refrigerant stream 25.
[0037] Liquid stream 10 recovered out of the bottom of the Cold
Separator 105 is routed, via level control, to the middle section
of the Demethanizer 107. Vapor stream 4 from the Cold Separator is
sent to the second Heat Exchanger 103B where it is condensed and
sub-cooled against other process streams including the NRU reboiler
stream 60 and nitrogen refrigerant stream 62. The condensed,
sub-cooled vapor stream 56 is fed to the top of the Demethanizer
107 as tower reflux. The Demethanizer 107 fractionates the various
components into an overhead vapor stream 50 containing essentially
all of the methane and nitrogen components and a bottoms liquid
stream 52 that contains essentially all of the ethane and heavier
hydrocarbon components contained in the inlet gas 2.
[0038] The Demethanizer overhead vapor stream 50 is sent to the
Heat Exchanger 103B where it is condensed, using the NRU Reboiler
stream 60 and Liquid Nitrogen Refrigerant stream 62 as the
condensing medium, and fed to the NRU Column 109. Here the
essentially binary methane and nitrogen feed stream is fractionated
into individual nitrogen vapor stream 63 and a liquefied methane
stream 64. The NRU 109 is provided to drive off nitrogen from the
LNG product and uses a tower reboiler heated in Exchanger 103B by
the Demethanizer overhead vapor stream 50 and Cold Separator
overhead vapor stream 4.
[0039] The liquid product 64 from the bottom of the NRU reboiler is
sub-cooled in the Heat Exchanger 103B, using liquid nitrogen
refrigerant stream 62 as the cooling medium, and routed to LNG
storage. As an alternative, the LNG product stream 64 can be routed
from the NRU 109 to the first Heat Exchanger 103A and used as
refrigerant to condense Inlet Gas 2, thus reducing the amount of
nitrogen 25 required for the system. The vaporized LNG 70 can then
be sold directly into a pipeline.
[0040] The NRU overhead stream is partially condensed, using liquid
nitrogen refrigerant stream 65, to minimize the hydrocarbon content
in the overhead vapor stream. The overhead stream 63 from the NRU
109 is then blended with the liquid nitrogen stream 65 feeding the
NRU Condenser and subsequently combined with the remainder of the
liquid nitrogen refrigerant utilized throughout the rest of the
process.
[0041] None of the description in the present application should be
read as implying that any particular element, step, or function is
an essential element which must be included in the claim scope: THE
SCOPE OF PATENTED SUBJECT MATTER IS DEFINED ONLY BY THE ALLOWED
CLAIMS. Moreover, none of these claims are intended to invoke
paragraph six of 35 USC section 112 unless the exact words "means
for" are followed by a participle.
[0042] The claims as filed are intended to be as comprehensive as
possible, and NO subject matter is intentionally relinquished,
dedicated, or abandoned.
* * * * *