Thermal Performance of Ammonia in Dual Mixed Refrigerant Cycle of Natural Gas Liquefaction Process

Abstract

Mixed refrigerant (MR) system is commonly used for a liquefaction process of liquid natural gas (LNG) plants due to its higher efficiency of heat transfer rate compared to pure refrigerants. The performance of MR system is highly dependent on the variable refrigerant composition, which is challenging to obtain in a practical LNG plant setting. To address this challenge, this study investigates a unique approach to improve the exergy efficiency of liquefaction cycle employing ammonia in the mixture while keeping the MR molar composition constant in dual mixed refrigerant (DMR) cycle. A control strategy is proposed to regulate the MR flowrate through flow control sensors and a series of Joule-Thomason (JT) valves to sustain the desired efficiency of the cycle under various plant’s operation conditions. The robustness and adaptability of two proposed MR compositions were examined under eight cases by varying natural gas (NG) feed pressure and methane concentration. Composite curve plots were utilized as a tool to control the minimum temperature approach (MTA) and to improve exergy efficiency of the cycle. Furthermore, findings revealed that mixtures which included ammonia yielded a reduction in the number of compressors, as well as a reduced the overall amount of compressors rate of shaft work required for the liquefaction cycle. The results emphasize that DMR is most efficient when NG methane concentration is at 75%. Furthermore, the compressor rate of shaft work reduced by 13.3%, while exergy efficiency of the cycle increased by 14.3%, when natural gas methane concentration reduced from 90% to 75%.