Liquified Natural Gas Thermodynamics Part 3A (Online)

Description

Over the period of the past 189 years, since Jacob Perkins invented the vapor compression refrigeration system, refrigerant technology has also developed significantly. In the 1800s, refrigerants were extremely toxic, and some were inefficient. These toxic refrigerants included ammonia, methyl chloride, and sulfur dioxide. Refrigeration systems were often installed outside to avoid death from a refrigerant leak. In this work, we will start our study with the simple systems in your automobile air conditioning system and your house household refrigerator/freezer system. Then, we will expand this study to the ultra-large systems used to liquefy natural gas for export terminals (in the 300,000 hp range). There are billions of small-size air conditioning/refrigeration systems in operation today, but only a few hundred behemoth-size systems are used in the LNG liquefaction industry. There are many other gas liquefying industries, but we will limit our focus to understanding small, simple systems and then learn about the larger systems used for liquefying natural gas. Although the basic technology is the same between the small-size units and the large units, the complexity of the systems and the refrigerants used differs as the desired temperatures become colder and as the capacity of the units becomes larger. If the outside environment is at 80 F, it takes little energy, and the technology is simple to achieve the 35 F temperature needed to cool down a soda. Storing frozen food at 0 F takes more energy, but the technology is still simple. However, if the outside environment is 80 F, it will take a significantly large amount of energy and more complex technology to achieve the ~ -260 F temperature needed to make Liquid Natural Gas (LNG). To achieve a temperature of ~ -424 F to liquefy hydrogen, the energy and technology required increases many-fold over that needed to make LNG. To take this to the extreme, liquid helium (the very coldest gas liquefied) can be produced at ~ -452 F and is extremely difficult and power intensive. Keep in mind the absolute zero temperature is -459.67 F. Professional Engineers need some understanding of thermodynamics to better respond to anomalies during plant operation. The thermodynamics presented in this publication are basic and based on application rather than theory. The cases studied are all steady-state (the properties of the fluid at any point do not change with time) and steady-flow (the flow rate does not change with time) type problems. All the solutions are based on some simple calculations and on the use of the pressure-enthalpy chart or thermodynamic software. A large-size pressure enthalpy chart for methane or thermodynamic software should accompany this publication.

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This Professional Engineer PDH continuing education course is given in 3 parts (This is part 3A).

• Part 1 is based on understanding thermodynamic concepts and using pressure enthalpy charts.
• Part 2 builds onto part 1 but uses thermodynamic software instead of pressure enthalpy charts for analysis and goes into additional depth.
• Part 3 builds on parts 1 and 2 to apply thermodynamics to understand air conditioning and refrigeration systems from ¼ hp size units to 300,000 hp size units. Part 3A focuses on pure substances and mixed refrigerant liquefaction systems.  Part 3B focuses on nitrogen expansion liquefaction systems.

This Part 3A PE online PDH course uses the laws of thermodynamics to show how common cooling and liquefaction systems operate.  It starts at the basic car air conditioner to refrigeration systems that are used to achieve -40 F. Then it moves on to explaining how cascade systems which use different refrigerants to obtain very low temperatures operate without mixing the refrigerants.  Finally, this section shows how mixed refrigerant systems operate and how they can be combined with a single refrigerant, such as propane, to provide a simple-to-use and efficient liquefaction process.

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Course Objectives

This profesional engineer license renewal continuting education course introduces learners to Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) production processes. LNG is widely used around the world. It is a very compact form of natural gas in liquid form. It is used on very cold days to supplement gas from the interstate pipelines to supply gas load centers like New York, Boston, and other major load areas. Natural gas (essentially the same as vaporized LNG) is the cleanest burning fossil fuel as it contains the least amount of carbon of all the fossil fuels. Thus, many electric power plants now use natural gas or are converting from dirtier fossil fuels to the use of natural gas or vaporized LNG. Upon completion of this course, the learner should, at a high level, be able to understand:

• The methods of pretreating natural gas before liquefaction
• Removal of solids and liquids from the liquefaction feed gas
• Removal of H2S and CO2 from the liquefaction feed gas
• Removal of mercury from the liquefaction feed gas
• Removal of water vapor from the liquefaction feed gas
• Removal of heavy hydrocarbons from the liquefaction feed gas
• How a car air conditioner works
• Refrigerants
• Limitation of single component refrigerants
• Getting down to cryogenic temperatures
• Cascade systems
• Mixed refrigerant systems
• Separated mixed refrigerant systems
• Propane precooled mixed separated mixed refrigerant systems
• Post-production nitrogen removal process
• Joules Thompson processes
• Efficiency improvements of  liquefaction systems
• The basics of thermodynaics
• The thermodynamics of refrigeration systems
• simple air conditioning as an automobile air conditioning system
• The thermodynamics of liquefying natural gas
• Cascade systems (in series single refrigerant systems)
• The thermodynamics of refrigerant systems
• Cascaded single and mixed refrigerant systems (C3MR system)
• Cascaded mixed refrigerant systems

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