INTEGRATED LIQUIDS RECOVERY TECHNOLOGYIMPROVES LNG PRODUCTION EFFICIENCY

摘要

Most natural gas is transported from the wellhead to processing plants and thence to consumersrnin high pressure gas transmission pipelines. At remote locations, however, liquefying the natural gasrnfor transport is increasingly common. The much lower volume of liquefied natural gas (LNG) relativernto gaseous natural gas can reduce transportation costs by allowing delivery using cargo ships orrntransport trucks instead of pipelines.rnRegardless of the method used to liquefy the natural gas stream, removal of a significantrnfraction of the heavier hydrocarbons is generally required before the stream is liquefied. The reasonsrnfor this hydrocarbon removal step are numerous, including control of the LNG heating value and thernvalue of these heavier hydrocarbon components as products in their own right. Unfortunately, littlernattention has been focused heretofore on the efficiency of this step.rnFor more than 30 years, Ortloff has been developing technology for recovering liquids fromrnnatural gas that offers higher recovery, better efficiency, greater simplicity, and better reliability thanrnother available processes. This natural gas liquids recovery technology can be extended to allowrnefficient liquids recovery in conjunction with liquefaction of the natural gas. Careful integration of thernhydrocarbon removal step into the LNG liquefaction process can produce both LNG and a separaternheavier hydrocarbon liquid product using significantly less energy than reported for current processes.rnThis paper presents the recovery and efficiency performance of the new liquids removalrntechnology when applied to typical natural gas liquefaction cycles. Several examples illustrate thernperformance advantages of the new technology.