2012 International Conference on Computer Distributed Control and Intelligent Enviromental Monitoring
Natural gas liquefaction process for small-scale LNG project
Cao Wensheng 1,2
1
College of Mechanical Engineering, Jimei University, Xiamen 361021, Fujian, China
2
Cleaning Combustion and Energy Utilization Research Center of Fujian Province, Jimei University, Xiamen 361021,
Fujian, China
E-mail address: caows@163.com
Abstract—In the field of natural gas liquefaction, the small-
scale natural gas liquefier has been attracting more and more
attentions home and abroad, thanks to its small volume,
mobile transportation, easy start-up and shut-down, as well as
skid-mounted package. A study was made to choose the
optimum liquefaction process to improve the economy of
small-scale liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant. The same
conditions are used to evaluate three types of liquefaction
process which include propane pre-cooling mixed refrigerant
cycle, nitrogen-methane expander cycle and SP-MRC (Mixed
Refrigerant Cycle in Skid-mounted Package) put forward by
authors. The result of comparison indicates that SP-MRC is
suitable for mostly small-scale LNG plants in skid-mounted
package due to its reduced equipment list and acceptable
power consumption. The new SP-MRC adopts the technology
of integral incorporated cascade which combines heavy and
light hydrocarbons. It can reduce the quantity and volume of
compressors and heat exchangers ensuring higher liquefaction
rate and lower specific power consumption.
Keywords-Natural gas; Small-scale; LNG; Liquefaction
process
I. INTRODUCTION OF LNG PROJECTS
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 (liquefied
natural gas) plant is up to 3.4Mt/a, and the one of the peak
shaving LNG plant is about 0.9Mt/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 (compressed natural
gas) fueling stations. Other markets for smaller-scale LNG
978-0-7695-4639-1/12 $26.00 © 2012 IEEE 439
DOI 10.1109/CDCIEM.2012.110
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 LNG projects. Comparing with
medium-sized or large-scale liquefaction plant, the key
characteristics of small-scale liquefaction plant are simple
process, low investment, miniature size and skid-mounted
package.
In this paper, a same basis is used to evaluate three types
of liquefaction cycle. These include propane pre-cooling
mixed refrigerant cycle, nitrogen-methane expander cycle
and new Mixed Refrigerant Cycle in Skid-mounted Package,
which is put forward by author. Based on the
thermodynamic analysis, the numerical simulation and
optimization of the above processes are carried through. The
key parameters of the three types of liquefaction process are
compared and analyzed.
II. DESIGN OF LIQUEFACTION PROCESSES
Three types of liquefaction process were designed for
comparison as follows.
ķPropane pre-cooling mixed refrigerant cycle (C3/MRC)
Fig. 1 shows a typical propane pre-cooling mixed
refrigeration cycle. It comprises three cycles: propane pre-
cooling refrigeration cycle (pre-cooling natural gas and
mixed refrigerant), mixed refrigerant cycle (condensing and
super-cooling natural gas), and natural gas liquefaction cycle.
The mixed refrigerant cycle uses a combination of
refrigerants including methane, ethane, propane and nitrogen,
which make it possible to supply refrigeration at
continuously changing temperature. Many factors influence
the performance of this cycle. They are high pressure and
low pressure of the mixed refrigerant, and mole fractions of
nitrogen, methane, ethane and propane in the refrigerant.

Figure1. Liquefaction process of propane pre-cooling MRC (C3/MRC)
ĸN 2-CH4 expander cycle (N 2-CH4 EC):
Fig. 2 shows a typical nitrogen-methane expander cycle.
It comprises nitrogen-methane expander refrigeration cycle
and natural gas liquefaction cycle. The expander cycle is the
simplest liquefaction cycle. It provides refrigeration by
compression and work expansion of gas stream. The factors
influence the cycle performance are high pressure and low
pressure of the mixed refrigerant, temperature of the
refrigerant before expansion, temperature of natural gas
leaving main heat exchanger, and mole fractions of nitrogen
and methane in the refrigerant.
Figure2. Liquefaction process of N2-CH4 expander cycle (N2-CH4 EC)
Ĺ Mixed Refrigerant Cycle in Skid-mounted Package
(SP-MRC)
Fig. 3 shows the Mixed Refrigerant Cycle in Skid-
mounted Package, which is put forward in this paper,
integrating with the strongpoint of multiform liquefaction
processes, as well as the trend of liquefaction process
development. It comprises mixed refrigerant cycle and
natural gas liquefaction cycle. Specific compositions of
methane, ethane, propane, butane, pentane and nitrogen
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make up of the mixed refrigerant. The factors that influence
the performance of this cycle are high pressure and low
pressure of the mixed refrigerant, temperature of separator
S1 and separator S2, and mole fractions of nitrogen, methane,
ethane, propane, butane and pentane in the refrigerant.
Figure3. Liquefaction process of new energy saving MRC (SP-MRC)
The explanation of SP-MRC is presented as follows. The
low-pressure refrigerant gas including light hydrocarbon
(nitrogen, methane and ethane) and heavy hydrocarbon
(propane, butane and pentane) is compressed by compressor
C1, and then enters pre-cooling exchanger E1, making high
boiling point components condensation. The temperature of
liquid refrigerant separated in separator S1 drops after being
throttled in throttle T1, supplying refrigeration for E1. The
gas refrigerant separated in S1 is compressed by compressor
C2, and then enters E1 again, separating gas and liquid
refrigerant in separator S2. The liquid refrigerant enters main
exchanger E2 for super-cooling, then be throttled in throttle
T2, supplying refrigeration for E2. The gas refrigerant enters
E2 for condensation and exchanger E3 for super-cooling,
then be throttled in throttle T3, supplying refrigeration for
E3.
The natural gas of pretreatment enters E1 for pre-cooling
and E2 for cooling, and the heavy hydrocarbon of natural
gas be separated in separator S3. The light hydrocarbon of
natural gas enters E2 again for cooling and E3 for super-
cooling, then be throttled in throttle T4, finally feeds into
LNG tank.
ĺProperty methods
Property methods are the base of simulation. Peng -
Robinson equation and Lee - Kesler - Plocker equation are
the keys of fluid package in simulation.
 III. RESULTS AND ANALYSIS OF SIMULATION (N2-CH4 EC) is quite the contrary. The parameter values of
The simulation and calculation of the three processes refrigerant flow rate, cooling water charge and specific
were done. Tab.1~4 is the composition of natural gas feed power consumption of the new energy saving mixed
and refrigerant, specified pressure and temperature of the refrigeration cycle (SP-MRC) are middle between the
three cycles respectively. previous two cycles, but the parameter values of SP-MRC
Tab.1. Mole fractions of components are very close to C3/MRC. The difference of liquefaction
ratios in the three cycles is very small, and the liquefaction
ratio value of C3/MRC is barely exceeding.
N2 CH4 C2H6 C3H8 i C4H10 n C4 H10 i C5 H12 n C5 H12
ĸAnalysis of simulation
Natural gas 0.7 82.0 11.2 4.0 1.2 0.9
From the comparison of the key parameters, C3/MRC is
C3/MRC 5.0 41.0 34.0 20
N2-CH4 EC 56.0 44.0 most efficient. As for the process simplicity, C3/MRC is
SP-MRC 5.2 24.6 29.5 20.4 5.5 4.8 5.1 4.9 most complicated, and N 2-CH4 EC is the simplest. C3/MRC
can be used in base load plants and some of large peak
Tab.2. Specified pressure and temperature for C3/MRC
Natural gas: High-pressure Low-pressure LNG
shaving plants. N2-CH4 EC requires high-power
(NG) refrigerant refrigerant store consumption, but has the advantages of simple process and
(High-P) (Low-P) (LNG)
reduced equipments. It can be adopted in some of small peak
Pressure shaving plants where non round-the-clock operation and
4.80 2.46 0.26 0.12
(M Pa)
Temperature frequent start-up and shut down are required. SP-MRC is
32.0 -35.0 -53.0 -158.7
(ć) much simpler than C3/MRC, while its power consumption is
only a bit higher than the latter. It is suitable for most small-
Tab.3. Specified pressure and temperature for N 2-CH4 EC
scale LNG plants in skid-mounted package due to its
Natural gas: High-pressure Low-pressure LNG
(NG) refrigerant refrigerant store reduced equipment list and acceptable power consumption.
(High-P) (Low-P) (LNG) To give a clear comparison, some key parameters of SP-
Pressure MRC with other two real mixed refrigerant cycles are
4.80 4.39 0.60 0.12
(M Pa)
summarized in Tab. 6 (End of the paper). It can be found
Temperature
32.0 32.0 28.74 -158.3 that SP- MRC is superior to other two real cycles.
(ć)
The performance parameters of SP-MRC keep better
Tab.4. Specified pressure and temperature for SP-MRC level closed to C3/MRC, while its equipment list is
Natural gas: High-pressure Low-pressure LNG
(NG) refrigerant refrigerant store
remarkably reduced. The key is that the propane, butane and
(High-P) (Low-P) (LNG) pentane components (heavy hydrocarbon component) are
Pressure relevantly added to the mixed refrigerant. The heavy
4.80 4.25 0.36 0.12
(M Pa) hydrocarbon components return the pre-cooling heat
Temperature
(ć)
32.0 32.0 28.67 -159.0 exchanger supplying refrigeration for pre-cooling the natural
gas and the mixed refrigerant after being separated in
separator and throttled in throttle, replacing the function of
propane pre-cooling cycle. It should be pointed out that, the
ķResults of simulation strong coupling relationship is existent among temperature
The key parameters of the three liquefaction processes of separators, refrigerant components and compositions, and
were compared, and the comparison of the optimization high pressure and low pressure of mixed refrigerant. The
results is presented in Tab. 5 (End of the paper). specification of the above values is more influential to the
From the data analysis of above Tab. 5, it can be seen performance and operation of liquefaction process.
that the propane pre-cooling mixed refrigeration cycle
(C3/MRC) needs the least parameter values of refrigerant
flow rate, cooling water charge and specific power
consumption, while the nitrogen-methane expander cycle

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 IV. CONCLUSIONS
The design and optimization of liquefaction process are
foremost parts for the development of small-scale LNG plant
in skid-mounted package. Its influence holds the balance.
The best suitable for small-scale skid-mounted liquefied
natural gas plant is found out in this paper, through the
numerical simulation and key parameter comparison of three
liquefaction processes, which are propane pre-cooling mixed
paper maybe offer a new idea in the development of small-
scale skid-mounted LNG project.
REFERENCES
[1] Finn A J, Johnson G L, Tomlinson T R, Development in natural gas
liquefaction, Hydrocarbon Processing, 1999 (4): 47~59.
[2] Vink K J, Comparison of Baseload Liquefaction Process, Twelfth
international Conference & Exhibition on Liquefied Natural Gas,
Perch, Australia, 1998, 3.6.

refrigerant cycle, nitrogen-methane expander cycle and new
energy saving mixed refrigerant cycle. It is new energy
saving mixed refrigerant cycle put forward by author. The
function of propane pre-cooling cycle is very important to
the mixed refrigerant cycle because it can make power
consumption of liquefaction process remarkable reduced. So
in the process of developing small-scale skid-mounted LNG
plant, a novel method of adding heavy hydrocarbon
components to the mixed refrigerant is used, which acts as
the role of propane pre-cooling cycle through ingenious
organization of liquefaction process.
Skid-mounted package is very essential to small-scale
LNG plant. The new energy saving mixed refrigerant cycle
makes it possible. The novel process put forward in this
[3] Gu Anzhong, Lu Xuesheng, Wang Rongshun, Shi Yumei, Lin
Wensheng, Liquefied natural gas technology, China machine press,
2004. (in Chinese)
[4] Terry Lavin, Comparison of Liquefaction Process, LNG Journal,
1998(3): 28~33.
[5] Shi Yumei, The thermodynamic research of the mixed refrigerant
cycle to liquefied natural gas, Doctoral dissertation, Shanghai Jiao
Tong University, 1998. (in Chinese)
[6] Zhu Gang, Study on transport properties of natural gas and
optimization on liquefaction processes of LNG peakshaving plants,
Doctoral dissertation, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 2000. (in
Chinese)

Tab.5. Comparison of the optimization results of the three liquefaction flows

Specific Specific load of Specific power of Specific power
Liquefaction Liquefaction
flowrate of cooling water (kJ/k expander (kJ/k consumption
flow rate
refrigerant mol) mol) (kJ/k mol)
C3/MRC 3.89 6623.0 0.96 26153.4
N2-CH4 EC 10.15 80097.3 13515.5 0.90 63654.8
SP-MRC 4.47 45471.6 0.90 29340.0

Tab.6. Key parameter comparison of SP-MRC with other two real cycles
Index SP-MRC in this Long Island lighting Co, Holbrook, Northern Indiana Public Serv.
paper Japan Co, Indiana, USA
Specific power consumption 29340 40600 36400
(kJ/k mol)
Liquefaction rate 0.90 0.70 0.82
Compositions of feed gas 0.7%N2, 82%CH4, 2.27%N2, 92.02%CH4, 4.29%C2+, 3.57%N2, 90.29%CH4,
(mole %) 17.3%C2+ 0.94%CO2, 0.48%O2 5.5%C2+, 0.64%CO2
Pressure of feed gas
(M Pa) 4.80 4.30 2.76

Cao Wensheng: PhD, Associate Professor

This paper is supported by the Doctor Research Fund of Jimei University.

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