Parameter comparison of two small-scale natural gas liquefaction processes in skid-mounted

packages
Abstract
Two typical types of small-scale natural gas liquefaction process in skid-mounted package were
designed and simulated. The key parameters of the two processes were compared, and the
matching of the heating and cooling curves in heat exchangers was also analyzed. The results
show that the N2–CH4 expander cycle precedes the mixed-refrigerant cycle on the premise of
lacking propane pre-cooling. Large temperature difference and heat exchange load are the
primary reasons of exergy loss in heat exchangers. The power consumption of compressors is
influential to power consumption per unit LNG, so compression with intercooling should be
adopted

1. Introduction
Cryogenic liquefaction plants have been applied in the commercial natural gas liquefaction
fields which liquefaction capacities are very large. For instance, the capacity of single product
line of base load LNG plant is up to 3.4 Mt/a, and the one of the peak shaving LNG plant is
about 0.9 Mt/a. Cryogenic liquefiers are commercially available for natural gas liquefaction.
These liquefiers are normally custom-made, permanent large capacity plants for natural gas
utility peak shaving and transcontinental natural gas shipping. The developing market of
natural gas vehicles provides an opportunity for LNG and LNG-CNG fueling stations. Other
markets for smaller-scale LNG liquefiers include onshore gas wells, customer sites that are
remotely situated from current gas pipelines, and industrial customer peak shaving
installations. Continued commercial development of LNG vehicles creates the opportunity of
developing small-scale natural gas liquefaction plants. Comparing with medium-sized or large-
scale liquefaction plant, the key characteristics of small-scale one are simple process, low
investment, miniature size and skid-mounted package [1–5].
The design, simulation and estimation of natural gas liquefaction process began from 1970.
Shell Corporation has simulated the cascade, mixed-refrigerant and N2 expander cycle,
moreover analyzed their advantages and disadvantages [6]. Melaaen set up a dynamic model
for the natural gas liquefaction process of base load plant, and carried through the simulation
by DASSL in 1995 [6]. Terry adopted HYSYS software to calculate and optimize the typical
liquefaction process of peak shaving plant in 1998 [7]. Kikkawa designed the latemodel
processes of pre-cooling mixed-refrigerant cycle and expander cycle, and calculated them by
CHEMCAD software in 1997 [8]. Prof. Gu An-zhongs research group of Shanghai Jiao Tong
University has carried through the simulation and calculation of natural gas liquefaction
process [6]. The previous work does not concern the small-scale natural gas liquefaction
process in skid-mounted package. But it will be helpful to the study presented in this paper.
Almost all kinds of liquefaction process can be adopted in small-scale LNG plants, so it is not
always easy to select the most suitable process for a certain project. A deep investigation into
these processes is needed before any choices are made.
Based on the thermodynamic analysis, the simulation and calculation of small-scale natural gas
liquefaction process in skid-mounted package were carried through. The key parameters of the
two sets of liquefaction process were compared, and the matching of the heating and cooling
curves in heat exchangers was also analyzed.
2. Design
Two similar processes were designed for comparison.
2.1. Liquefaction processes
On the basis of the characteristics of small-scale LNG plant, two sets of typical liquefaction
process were designed in this paper for analysis and comparison. The liquefaction process of
mixed-refrigerant cycle (MRC) was adopted in Process 1 shown in Fig. 1, which removed the
common cycle of propane pre-cooling, making the process simpler and more compact. The
MRC uses a combination of refrigerants in a single refrigeration cycle, which makes it possible
to supply refrigeration at continuously changing temperature. The liquefaction process of N2–
CH4 expander cycle was adopted in Process 2 shown in Fig. 2. It provides refrigeration by
compression and work expansion of gas stream.

2.2. Property methods

Property methods are the base of simulation. PR equation and LKP equation are the keys of
fluid package in simulation. The Peng–Robinson equation of state applies functionality to some
specific component–component interaction parameters, which can be used in the calculation
of phase equilibrium [11]. It is written by where P is pressure, R is gas constant, T is
temperature, V is specific volume, a and b are the constants relating to the gas species, x is
mole fraction of a certain component, k is binary interaction coefficient. It is rewritten as where
Z is a constringent factor, A and B are the coefficients relating to the gas state parameters. The
Lee–Kesler–Plocker equation is an accurate general method for non-polar substances and
mixtures, which can be used in the calculation of enthalpy and entropy of mixed components
[11]. It is given by where x is an acentric factor, 0 and r denote the relevant parameters of
simple and reference liquids.

2.3. Parameter optimization

Before the simulation, the required parameters were specified in Tables 1–3 based on the
effect analysis of the parameters on the process performance. These figures were gained
through the optimization of the objective function on specific power consumption [9,10].
Assumed the flow rate of natural gas feed was 4.0 k mol/h.
The simulating calculation and optimization on Processes 1 and 2 were done using PR equation
of state and LKP equation through HYSYS software. PR or LKP equation is the one of the most
important Fluid Packages that is the base of the simulation by HYSYS. Many factors influence
the performance of a certain process. For instance, they are high pressure and low pressure of
the mixed-refrigerant, temperature of the refrigerant before expansion, and mole fraction of
nitrogen, methane, ethane, propane, etc. These factors are described as X = [x1,x2,x3,...,xN] T.
In this case, the optimization problem is finding out the optimum parameter values to make
the power consumption lowest. The objective function is where W is the total power
consumption of compressors, FLNG is flow rate of LNG. In fact, it is necessary to take all the
factors such as initial cost, power consumption, plant area, simplicity of the process, etc., into
consideration. But many of these factors are not pure technical ones. In this paper, only specific
power consumption (power consumption per unit LNG) is taken as the optimization aim. The
constraints are as below: (A) Sum of the mole fractions of mixed-refrigerant is 1. (B) The
temperature of mixed-refrigerant at the inlet of compressor is higher than its dew point. (C)
The temperature difference between the hot and cold areas of fluid cannot be negative.
HYSYS contains a multi-variable steady state Optimizer. Once the flowsheet has been built and
a converged solution has been obtained, the Optimizer can be used to find the operating
conditions which minimize (or maximize) the objective function. The Optimizer owns its own
spreadsheet for defining the objective function, as well as any constraint expressions to be
used. HYSYS has five modes of Optimizer: Original, Hyprotech SQP, MDC Optim, MDC
DataRecon and Selection Optimization. Any mode of Optimizer can be used in this case, but the
Original mode was selected for its common optimization in HYSYS. The following sections
describe the optimization schemes for the Original Optimizer: Function Setup, BOX Method,
SQP Method, Mixed Method, Fletcher Reeves Method and Quasi-Newton Method, which are
the types of built-in algorithm.

3. Results and analysis of simulation

The simulation and calculation of the two processes were done.

3.1. Results of simulation

The key parameters of the two liquefaction processes were compared, and the comparison of
the optimization results is presented in Table 4.
From the data analysis of above Table 4, it can be seen that the key parameters of the N2–CH4
expander cycle defeat the ones of the mixed-refrigerant cycle except liquefaction rate, thanks
to the latter lacking the propane pre-cooling cycle for meeting the requirement of the natural
gas liquefier in skid-mounted package.
The mixed-refrigerant cycle with propane pre-cooling (C3/MRC) is the same with large-scale
LNG plant of base load, but not fits small-scale one in skid-mounted package. There are few
advantages left for the mixedrefrigerant cycle running short of the propane pre-cooling,
competing with the N2–CH4 expander cycle. Differing from the C3/MRC which are complex
process and low-power consumption, the N2–CH4 expander cycle is seasoned with mobile LNG
plant of medium-sized or large-scale style, due to its compact process, flexible operation and
extensive applicability. It should be considered integrating the technical characteristics of
above both to develop new type of liquefaction process in skidmounted package, which caters
to the development tide of natural gas liquefaction process currently pursuing a brief and
efficient one.

3.2. Heat exchange load and temperature distribution

The main energy loss of a natural gas liquefaction process exists in compressors and heat
exchangers, but not neglecting the loss in throttles.
Compression with intercooling was used in this case, in order to decrease the irreversible
degree and the power consumption of compression process. The reclaimed power of the
expander in Process 2 was used to drive the retropack, which reduced the power consumption
of compressors. In this paper, the matching of the heating and cooling curves between the feed
gas and the mixed-refrigerant in heat exchangers was analyzed. The temperature difference
and heat exchange load in heat transfer contribute to the exergy loss, so large temperature
difference and heat exchange load are the primary reasons of the exergy loss in heat
exchangers. Sure the heat flow is not the only one affected by the changing temperature, the
enthalpy and pressure also are the ones. The matching of the heating and cooling curves in
heat exchangers in Processes 1 and 2 was analyzed.
It can be seen from the results shown in Figs. 3–6. It can be found from Figs. 3–6 that, the heat
exchange load of the pipelines in the heat exchangers are climbing along with the ascending
temperature.
Generally, under the condition of the same temperature, the heat exchange load of the natural
gas pipelines (14– 15, 15–16) is lowest, next is the load of the high-pressure refrigerant
pipelines (Process 1: 4–7; Process 2: 4–5, 8– 9), and the load of the low-pressure refrigerant
pipelines (Process 1: 8–9, 12–13; Process 2: 10–13) is highest. This is because that the low-
pressure refrigerant pipelines are charged with cooling capacities to the natural gas pipelines
and the high-pressure refrigerant pipelines. Moreover, the heat exchange load of exchanger 1
is more than that of exchanger 2. The emergence of the inflexions on the curves indicates the
phase change from two-phase to single-phase and vice versa.
The largest temperature difference between the highpressure and low-pressure refrigerant
pipelines in heat exchanger 1 and 2 of Process 1 is about 45 C, in the condition of lacking
propane pre-cooling. The temperature difference between the same ones in heat exchanger 1
of Process 2 is comparatively even, which is about 30 C. But the temperature difference in heat
exchanger 2 of Process 2 is about 35 C. It will cause more exergy loss in heat exchangers if the
temperature difference and heat exchange load are not limited. So it is necessary to take some
measures of strengthening heat transfer, such as increasing the heat transfer areas and
reducing the temperature difference, which may cut down the exergy loss in heat exchangers.
Although the temperature difference between the natural gas and low-pressure refrigerant
pipelines is very large, the exergy loss of the natural gas pipelines is still small owing to their
low-heat exchange load.
4. Conclusions
(1) It is found that the N2–CH4 expander cycle precedes the mixed-refrigerant cycle on the
premise of lacking propane pre-cooling from the parameter comparison. The role of propane
pre-cooling is very important to the mixed-refrigerant cycle. It should be considered for energy
saving in the development of small-scale natural gas liquefaction process in skid-mounted
package.
(2) It should be paid more attention to the high-temperature sections of heat exchanger 1 in
the design of heat exchanger, since the heat exchange load of exchanger 1 is more than that of
exchanger 2. The exergy loss of the natural gas pipelines is small because of their low-heat
exchange load.
(3) The temperature difference and the heat exchange load between the pipelines in
exchangers are large. They are the key factors that cause the exergy loss, so the measures of
strengthening heat transfer should be carried through.
(4) The power consumption of compressors is more influential to specific power consumption,
so compression with intercooling should be adopted to lessen the irreversible degree of
compression process. The reclaimed power of the expander in Process 2 was used to drive the
retropack for reducing the power consumption of compressors.