×

Natural gas liquefaction employing independent refrigerant path

  • US 10,655,911 B2
  • Filed: 06/20/2012
  • Issued: 05/19/2020
  • Est. Priority Date: 06/20/2012
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
Patent Images

1. A method of liquefying natural gas, the method comprising:

  • cooling a compressed gaseous refrigerant stream of a refrigerant loop in a channel of a heat exchanger to form a partially gaseous refrigerant stream comprising a gaseous phase and a liquid phase;

    separating the gaseous phase from the liquid phase in a separation vessel downstream of the channel of the heat exchanger to form a gaseous refrigerant side stream and a liquid refrigerant stream;

    expanding the gaseous refrigerant side stream in an expansion device downstream of the separation vessel;

    combining the expanded, gaseous refrigerant side stream with the liquid refrigerant stream in a mixer downstream of the expansion device to form another partially gaseous refrigerant stream; and

    directing the another partially gaseous refrigerant stream into another channel of the heat exchanger downstream of the mixer prior to modifying a temperature of the another partially gaseous refrigerant stream to extract heat from a natural gas process stream of a natural gas processing path fluidly separate from the refrigerant loop to liquefy at least a portion of the natural gas process stream and form a gaseous refrigerant stream.

View all claims
  • 2 Assignments
Timeline View
Assignment View
    ×
    ×