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Alternative recuperative heat exchanger design and operating results for distributed-scale natural gas liquefiers.

Author(s) : BARCLAY M., KAPLAN L.

Summary

Natural gas liquefaction plants with cooling capacities of the order of 100 kW are expected to play a role in the development of a distributed energy infrastructure. Liquefaction plants of this scale must carefully balance delivery time and capital costs with performance. These demands place special design requirements on many of the system components including the main recuperative heat exchanger that transfers heat between the cold and warm streams in the refrigeration cycle. The paper discusses how distributed-scale natural gas liquefiers may use either a single brazed aluminium plate-fin heat exchanger (APHE) typical of the air separation industry or multiple stainless steel brazed plate heat exchangers (BPHEs) typical of the refrigeration industry. Heat exchanger design, specification, and performance are compared for three plants using modified-Brayton cycle refrigeration systems. First, the recuperative heat exchangers in two liquefiers developing 20 kW and 90 kW of cooling power are described. These heat exchangers consisted of multiple BPHEs assembled in series and/or parallel. The larger system is then compared to a 100 kW liquefier using a single more traditional APHE. The performance, capital costs, delivery time, integration costs, reliability, and additional intangibles of both heat exchanger designs are considered as they relate to refrigeration system scale and thermodynamic cycle. Operational experience shows that either type of plate heat exchangers may work well for natural gas liquefiers and that the most cost effective heat exchanger configuration depends primarily on the application, production rate, and refrigeration cycle.

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Details

  • Original title: Alternative recuperative heat exchanger design and operating results for distributed-scale natural gas liquefiers.
  • Record ID : 2005-0545
  • Languages: English
  • Source: 21st IIR International Congress of Refrigeration: Serving the Needs of Mankind.
  • Publication date: 2003/08/17

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