Systems and methods for low-temperature gas separation
First Claim
1. A method of low-temperature gas mixture separation, suitable for separating components of a hydrocarbon gas mixture, comprising:
- cooling a gas mixture;
condensing a gas mixture to produce a liquid stream and a gas/vapor;
rectifying at least a portion of the liquid stream thereby producing respective gas-phase products;
transferring heat energy to or from at least one of the liquid stream, the gas/vapor stream and gas-phase products from or to at least another one of the gas mixture, the liquid stream, the gas/vapor stream, gas-phase products and another flow in order to recycle energy.
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Abstract
One of the drawbacks common to many currently available low-temperature gas mixture separation techniques is that known systems and methods that embody the techniques are inefficient. In contrast to known systems and methods for low-temperature gas mixture separation, some embodiments of the present invention provide a system for low-temperature gas mixture separation that recycles energy and reduces power consumption by re-circulating heated and/or cooled flows (e.g. gas, liquid and mixed-phase flows) within the system. Accordingly, in some embodiments efficiency is somewhat improved, as compared to comparable systems that do not include the re-circulation of heat energy. In some embodiments the heat energy that is re-circulated is a combination of heat added to the system (i.e. inputs to the system) and heat released within the system (i.e. byproducts from within the system) that are subsequently recovered. In particular, some systems and methods provided in accordance with embodiments of the invention are suited for separating the constituent components of natural gas and other hydrocarbon gas mixtures.
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Citations
36 Claims
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1. A method of low-temperature gas mixture separation, suitable for separating components of a hydrocarbon gas mixture, comprising:
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cooling a gas mixture;
condensing a gas mixture to produce a liquid stream and a gas/vapor;
rectifying at least a portion of the liquid stream thereby producing respective gas-phase products;
transferring heat energy to or from at least one of the liquid stream, the gas/vapor stream and gas-phase products from or to at least another one of the gas mixture, the liquid stream, the gas/vapor stream, gas-phase products and another flow in order to recycle energy. - View Dependent Claims (2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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3. A method according to 2 further comprising rectifying at least a portion of the first flow in conjunction with the liquid stream.
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20. A system for low-temperature gas mixture separation, suitable for separating components of a hydrocarbon gas mixture, comprising:
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a first gas/liquid separator for separating an incoming gas mixture into a liquid stream and a gas/vapor stream;
a first expander, for producing first and second flows, coupled the first gas/liquid separator to receive the gas/vapor stream, the first expander also including a swirling means for swirling the gas/vapor stream to thereby separate heavy components of the gas/vapor stream from the light components of the gas/vapor stream, wherein the heavy components primarily comprise the first flow and the lighter components primarily comprise the second flow;
a rectifying tower, for producing at least gas-phase products, coupled to the first gas/liquid separator to receive the liquid stream; and
at least one heat exchanger for transferring heat energy to or from at least one of the liquid stream, the gas/vapor stream, gas-phase products and the first and second flows from or to at least another one of the gas mixture, the liquid stream, the gas/vapor stream, gas-phase products, the another flow and the first and second flows in order to recycle energy within the system. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36)
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Specification