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Refrigeration systems are common in the natural gas processing industry and processes related to the petroleum refining, petrochemical, and chemical industries. Several applications for refrigeration include NGL recovery, LPG recovery, hydrocarbon dew point control, reflux condensation for light hydrocarbon fractionators, and LNG plants. Selection of a refrigerant is generally based upon temperature requirements, availability, economics, and previous experience. For instance, in a natural gas processing plant, ethane and propane may be at hand; whereas in an olefins plant, ethylene and propylene are readily available. Propane or propylene may not be suitable in an ammonia plant because of the risk of contamination, while ammonia may very well serve the purpose. Halocarbons have been used extensively because of their nonflammable characteristics
The next figures show the different charts of the refrigerants and the other refrigeration medium.
Figure 1.3 shows the pressure enthalpy diagram of the standard vapor compression refrigeration cycle, while figure 5.4 shows the (T-S) diagram.
Fig. 1.4.Schematic of (a) a reversible refrigerator and (b) reversible gas cooler for cooling/
liquefying a gas from state 1 to state 2. Consider a refrigerator that provides refrigeration over a constant temperature and operates on reversible thermodynamic processes. Such a refrigerator will henceforth be called a reversible refrigerator [Fig. 1.4(a)]. Heat is rejected to the surroundings at a temperature To and absorbed at a temperature T .T <To/. The heat transfer between the refrigerator and source/sink is assumed to occur at a zero temperature difference in all reversible refrigerators. The temperature of the refrigerant is therefore the same as that of the ambient (To) during the heat rejection process and that of the load (T ) during the heat absorption process. The first and second laws of thermodynamics can be written for a reversible refrigerator as follows:
Substituting Eq. (1.2) into Eq. (1.1) gives the expression for the power required by a reversible refrigerator as follows:
where T and To refer to the refrigeration and ambient temperatures, respectively. Q and _ Qo are the heat absorbed and heat rejected, respectively The coefficient of performance (COP) of any refrigerator is defined as follows:
where Q and _Wc refer to the heat absorbed and compressor work input in joules, and Q and _ Wc refer to the heat transfer rate from the low-temperature source and the power supplied to the compressor in watts. The coefficient of performance (COP) of an ideal reversible refrigerator providing refrigeration at constant temperature can be expressed in terms of the temperatures for the heat source and heat sink using Eq. (1.3) as follows:
Figure 1.4(b) shows the schematic of a gas cooler in which the process fluid is cooled from a temperature T1 to a temperature T2. The first and second laws of thermodynamics can be written for the control volume of an ideal gas cooler [Fig. 1.4(b)] operating on reversible processes and providing refrigeration over a range of temperatures as follows:
Where W l, rev refers to the power input to the reversible gas cooler and Pn is the mole flow rate of the process fluid. Substituting Eq. (1.7) into Eq. (1.6) gives the expression for the minimum power required for cooling a gas from state 1 to state 2 as follows: In the above expression, ex refers to the exergy of the fluid being cooled((e=(h-ho)-To(sso)) and To is the ambient temperature. It is evident from Eq. (1.8) that the minimum work required to cool a unit mole of a gas using an ideal gas cooler operating on reversible processes is the same as the exergy change of the fluid being cooled and is independent of the process used for cooling.
Since the entropy at state points 2 and 3 is the same(S2=S3), the above expression for the net power required to cool the gas from temperatureT1 to T3 can be expressed as
1.6 Two stage of compression with flash intercooler and gas removal
In this system the flash intercooler is used to cool the refrigerant between the two stages of compression to reduce the total work and the compression temperature. As well as, to remove the gases from the expansion process before interring to the evaporator to increase the refrigeration effect. The mass flow rate of the refrigerant is not constant in the whole of the cycle due to the heat and mass exchange in the flash tank. However the mass flow could be divided into two levels, one for the lower cycle is called m_ _ and the other for the upper cycle is called m_ _. Figures 1.5 & 1.6 show the flow diagram of the cycle and the (P-h) diagram. Due to the variation of the mass flow rate, the cycle calculations should be related to power not to work calculations. The intermediate pressure
To find the mass flow rates through the cycle, the lower cycle mass flow rate could be given from the refrigeration effect as;
After you can find the value of the upper cycle mass flow rate by applying the enrgy equation on the flash tank as;
Fig. 1.6 (P-h) diagram for two stage of compression with flash intercooler system. 1.7 Cascade refrigeration system
A cascade system consists of two separate single-stage refrigeration systems: a lower system that can better maintain lower evaporating temperatures and a higher system that performs better at higher evaporating temperatures. These two systems are connected by a cascade condenser in which the condenser of the lower system becomes the evaporator of the higher system as the higher systems evaporator takes on the heat released from the lower systems condenser. See figures 1.7 and 1.8. It is often desirable to have a heat exchanger between the liquid refrigerant from the cascade condenser and the vapor refrigerant leaving the evaporator of the lower system. The liquid refrigerant can be sub-cooled to a lower temperature before entering the evaporator of the lower system, as shown in the next figure. Because the evaporating temperature is low, there is no danger of too high a discharge temperature after the compression process of the lower system. When a cascade system is shut down while the temperature of the ambient air is 25C, the saturated vapor pressure of the refrigerant increases. For a lower system using HFC125 as the refrigerant, this saturated pressure may increase to 1440 kPa abs. For safety reasons, a relief valve at the cascade condenser connects to an expansion tank, designed to store the refrigerant from the lower system in case of shutdown. For extremely low evaporating temperatures, a multistage compression system may be used in either the lower or higher system of a cascade system.
1.7.1 Advantages and Disadvantages The main advantage of a cascade system is that different refrigerants, equipment, and oils can be used for the higher and the lower systems. This is especially helpful when the evaporating temperature required in the lower system is less than -60C. One disadvantage of a cascade system is the overlap of the condensing temperature of the lower system and the evaporating temperature of the higher system for heat transfer in the
condenser. The overlap results in higher energy consumption. Also a cascade system is more complicated than a compound system. The performance of the cascade system can be measured in terms of 1 kg of refrigerant in the lower system, for the sake of convenience. If the heat transfer between the cascade condenser and the surroundings is ignored, then the heat released by the condenser of the lower system is equal to the refrigerating load on the evaporator of the higher system. 1.7.2 Assumptions The following assumptions are made in all the examples provided in this chapter: 1-The pressure drop in all heat exchangers and phase separators is zero. 2-The ambient temperature is 300 K. 3-The minimum temperature approach between the hot and cold streams is 3 K in all cold heat exchangers. 4-The adiabatic efficiency of all compressors is 80% and that of all pumps is 90%. 5-The heat inleak from ambient is negligible.
1.7.2 Applications of cascade systems 1-Liquefaction of natural gas and petroleum vapours 2-Liquefaction of industrial gases 3-Manufacturing of dry ice 4-Deep freezing etc. 5-Medical applications 1.7.3Optimum cascade temperature: For a two-stage cascade system working on Carnot cycle, the optimum cascade temperature at which the COP will be maximum, Tcc,opt is given by:
where Te and Tc are the evaporator temperature of low temperature cascade and condenser temperature of high temperature cascade, respectively. Refrigeration effect
Total Power
In a refrigeration cycle, energy is transferred from lower to higher temperature levels economically by using water or ambient air as the ultimate heat sink. If ethane is used as a refrigerant, the warmest temperature level to condense ethane is its critical temperature of about 90F. This temperature requires unusually high compression ratios making an ethane compressor for such service complicated and uneconomical. Also in order to condense ethane at 90F, a heat sink at 85F or lower is necessary. This condensing temperature is a difficult cooling water requirement in many locations. Thus a refrigerant such as propane is cascaded with ethane to transfer the energy from the ethane system to cooling water or air.
One example of cascade cycle is ConocoPhillips currently has at least two trains in operation: Atlantic LNG, and Egyptian LNG. More trains are being constructed since this process is expanding to compete with the APCI. It shares about 5% of the worlds LNG production and it has been in operation for more than 30 years.
The process uses a three stage pure component refrigerant cascade of propane, ethylene, and methane .The pretreated natural gas enters the first cycle or cooling stage which uses propane as a refrigerant. This stage cools the natural gas to about -35oC and it also cools the other two refrigerants to the same temperature. Propane is chosen as the first stage refrigerant because it is available in large quantities worldwide and it is one of the cheapest refrigerants. The natural gas then enters the second cooling stage which uses ethylene as the refrigerant and this stage cools the natural gas to about -95oC. At this stage the natural gas is converted to a liquid phase (LNG) but the natural gas needs to be further sub cooled so the fuel gas produced would not exceed 5% when the LNG stream is flashed. Ethylene is used as the second stage refrigerant because it condenses methane at a pressure above atmospheric and it could be also condensed by propane. After methane has been condensed by ethylene, it is sent to the third stage where it sub cools the natural gas to about - 155oC then it is expanded through a valve which drops down the LNG temperature to about - 160oC. Methane is sent back to the first cooling stage and the LNG stream is flashed into about 95% LNG (which is sent to storage tanks) and 5% fuel gas used as the liquefaction process fuel. Methane is used as the sub cooling stage refrigerant because it could sub cools up to -155 oC and it is available in the natural gas stream so it is available at all times and at lower costs.
The T-Q profile of the simple cascade is shown in the next figure:
The MR process uses a mixture of hydrocarbons and nitrogen as a single refrigerant. Selecting the correct composition of refrigerant to maintain proper temperatures and pressures during separation and flashing is an important part of optimization.
One of the example of MR is APCI. This process accounts for a very significant proportion of the world's baseload LNG production capacity. Train capacities of up to 4.7 million tpy were built or are under construction. It's illustrated in Figure 4 as part of an overall LNG plant flow schme. There are tow main refrigeration cycles . The precooling cycle uses a pure component , propane. The liquefaction and sub-cooling cycle uses a mixed refrigerant (MR) made up of nitrogen , methane, ethane and propane.
The precooling cycle uses propane at three or four pressure levels and can cool the process gas down to -40 C. it's also used to cool and partially liquefy the MR. The cooling is achieved in kettle-type exchangers with propane refrigerant boiling and evaporating in a pool on the shell side, and with the process streams flowing in immersed tube passes. A centrifugal compressor wih side streams recovers the evaporated C3 streams and compresses the vapour to 15-25 Bara to be condensed against water or air and recycled to the propane kettles. In the MR cycles, the partially liquefied refrigerant is separated into vapour and liquid streams that are used to liquefy and sub-cool the process streams from typically -35C to between -150C-160C. This is carried out in a proprietary spiral wound exchanger , the main cryogenic heat exchanger (MCHE). The MCHE consists of two or three tube bundles arranged in a vertical shell, with the process gas and refrigeration entering the tubes at the bottom which then flow upward under pressure. The process gas passes through all the bundles to emerge liquefied at the top. The liquid MR streams is extracted after the warm or middle bundle and is flashed across a joule Thomson valve or hydraulic expander onto the shell side.It flows down wards and evaporates, providing the bulk of cooling for the lower bundles. The vapour MR streams passes to the top(cold bundle) and is liquefied and sub-cooled, and is flashed across a JT valve into the shell side over the top of the cold bundle . It flows downwards to provide the cooling duty for the top bundle and, after mixing with liquid MR, part of the duty for the lower bundles. The overall vaporized MR streams from the bottom of the MCHE is recovered and compressed by the MR compressor to 45-48 Bara . It's cooled and partially liquefied first by water or air and then by the propane refrigerant, and recycled to the MCHE. In earlier plants all stages of the MR compression were normally centrifugal, however, in some recent plants axial compressors have been used for the LP stage and centrifugal for the HP stage.