Вы находитесь на странице: 1из 6

Poster PO-55

USING TWO-PHASE LNG EXPANDERS TO EXTEND LIFETIME OF DEPLETING GAS WELLS OR FOR NITROGEN REJECTION
Munir Amsyari Corporate Secretary P.T. Badak, Jakarta, Indonesia Muljono Sutedjo General Manager P.T. Indobara Bahana, Jakarta Pusat, Indonesia Chen-Hwa Chiu Senior Technology Advisor Chevron Energy Technology, Houston, Texas, USA Yoshitsugi Kikkawa Senior Engineering Consultant Atsushi Mukaiboh Rotating Machinery Unit Manager Chiyoda Corporation, Yokohama, Japan Katarzyna Cholast Andrzej Kociemba Process Advisors KRIO Polish Oil and Gas, Odolanow, Poland Hans E. Kimmel Executive Director Ebara International Corporation, Sparks, Nevada, USA

ABSTRACT The depletion of natural gas wells is the subject of increasing technical and economic interest. There are several reasons for this growing interest: It is difficult to predict the time when the natural gas well starts to deplete and to estimate the remaining time until the well is completely exhausted. Upgrading the facility to an advanced technology is too expensive in relation to the risk connected with the depletion. Reduced pressure in the gas well requires injection with nitrogen gas and increases the overall liquefaction costs.

The paper presents a new approach to extend the lifetime of depleting gas fields. The installation and operation of two-phase LNG expanders reduces the required feed gas supply in existing liquefaction plants, thus extending the lifetime of the gas well. In addition, for nitrogen injected gas wells, or nitrogen rich feed gas, two-phase LNG expanders can handle such feed gas, resulting in sub-cooling the remaining LNG and reducing the entire boil-off downstream of the expander. The investment payback time for LNG expanders is less than six months. The overall plant profit increases by using two-phase LNG expanders in a base-load LNG plant despite of the gas well depletion.

PO-55.1

Poster PO-55

INTRODUCTION Dr William Cullen, Professor in Chemistry at the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh formulated in 1765 his theory of heat and combustion. In 1775 he developed a simple method for producing ice by simply evaporating the air and water vapor from a tank filled with liquid water. Today this refrigeration process is known as evaporation or vacuum cooling. Evaporation cooling occurs at the liquid-vapor interface. A liquid-to-vapor phase change process requires vaporization heat, which is extracted from the remaining liquid part. Consequently any partial vaporization of a liquid cools the remaining part of the liquid. Evaporation cooling is applied in gas liquefaction plants, particularly for natural gas liquefaction, to reduce the temperature of the liquefied gas below the condensation temperature. The necessary equipment to introduce evaporation cooling to the LNG liquefaction process is a two-phase LNG expander. TWO-PHASE LNG EXPANDERS Kikkawa et al. [1], Mukaiboh et al. [2] and Chiu et al. [3] describe the principle of single-phase and two-phase LNG expanders in their referred publications. Figure 1 shows a cross section of the design of a two-phase LNG expander manufactured and installed by Ebara International Corporation at the Krio Nitrogen Rejection Plant in Odolanow, Poland. Cholast et al. [4] and Kociemba et al. [5] presented a detailed report on the performance of two-phase LNG expanders at the Krio site in Odolanow/Poland. There are some important differences in the performance of single-phase and twophase LNG expanders. Two-phase LNG expanders vaporize a certain amount of LNG to sub-cool the remaining LNG. The reduction of pressure in two-phase expanders is relatively small compared to the pressure difference across a single phase LNG expander, Kimmel et al. [6]. The performance of single-phase expanders depend only on the mass flow, differential pressure and rotational speed, while the performance of two-phase expanders depends on the composition, temperature, inlet and outlet pressure, volumetric flow and rotational speed. Therefore changes in the performance characteristic of twophase expanders have to be adjusted to the momentary process data. To comply with the differences in the performance of single-phase and two-phase LNG expanders, Madison [7] presented an assembly of one single-phase expander and one two-phase expander operating in series and mounted together in tandem configuration within one pressure vessel. Figure 2 shows the assembly in tandem configuration. The two-phase expander for smaller pressure differences and the singlephase expander for larger pressure differences are able to operate independently on different rotational speeds.

PO-55.2

Poster PO-55

Figure 1. Two-Phase LNG Expander DEPLETING GAS WELLS

Figure 2. Single-Phase and TwoPhase LNG Expanders in Series

Depleting gas wells are in many cases an event, which is very difficult to predict in time. Once it is known, the possible solutions to be applied for depleting gas wells are the same as for new gas wells: To reduce the overall energy consumption for the liquefaction process to a minimum. Each existing equipment of the liquefaction plant has to be analyzed for possible energy savings, and eventually be replaced by more advanced equipment. The costs for upgrades are different for each equipment and some improvements may not be economical for existing plants while other improvements are feasible solutions. Single-phase and two-phase LNG expanders replacing Joule-Thomson valves increase the LNG production without increasing the energy consumption and are investments that have a payback time of less than six months. In addition LNG expanders produce electrical energy that reduce the overall energy consumption. To gain the most benefits using LNG expanders Amsyari et al.[8] proposes a natural gas liquefaction process to extend the lifetime of gas wells. Figure 3 shows the proposed liquefaction process from Amsyari et al [8] for optimum sub-cooling of LNG using one single-phase X1 and one two-phase X2 LNG expander both operating on variable rotational speed. The phase separator PHS is installed

PO-55.3

Poster PO-55

downstream and close to the two-phase expander X2. To gain the most benefits from the evaporation cooling process it is necessary to separate the LNG liquid and vapor immediately after the vaporization takes place. During this transitional non-steady state at the exit of the two-phase expander X2 the liquid portion of the LNG is much colder than the vapor portion, and immediate phase separation prevents re-heating of the liquid portion, Sutedjo et al. [9].

Figure 3. Process Schematic for Optimum Sub-Cooling of LNG The pressurized condensed LNG from the main heat exchanger MHE enters the liquid expander X1 under the inlet condition T1 (temperature), P1 (inlet pressure) and M1 (mass flow). The rotational speed of X1 is set to expand the LNG to the outlet pressure P2, which is also the inlet pressure for X2. The rotational speed of X2 is set to optimize the ratio between LNG liquid (LLNG) and vapor (VLNG) under certain conditions. Dependent on the existing process the preferred condition is to produce the most and the coldest LNG. That is to maximize the parameter V, where V = (T1-T3) x (M3), with T3 (temperature), M3 (liquid mass flow) and P3 (pressure) at the LNG liquid outlet and T1 the LNG temperature at the expander X1 inlet. By optimizing the operation of X1 and X2 for the production of the most and coldest LNG, expressed by the maximum value of V, reduces the energy costs and feed gas consumption of the liquefaction plant. The produced LNG vapor is partially recompressed, used as fuel for the gas turbines, or used as cooling medium in heat exchangers.

PO-55.4

Poster PO-55

TRANSIENT OPERATION OF TWO EXPANDERS IN SERIES Liquid expanders are occasionally subject to transient operation if power failure occur at the plant. If two expanders are operating in series then a power failure at one expander effects the operation of the other expander. Figure 4 shows the performance characteristics of two expanders operating in series.

Figure 4. Performance Characteristics of Two Expanders Operating in Series The horizontal axis represents the flow Q and the vertical axis represents the differential head H. If both expanders are operating at the rated point R1 and R2, then the rated flow for both is QR and the rated heads are HR1 and HR2. The rated points are located at the constant speed curve S1 and S2. If power failure occurs only on expander 1, then expander 1 is operating along the no-load characteristic N1 and expander 2, still producing power, is operating along the constant speed curve S2. Since the flow QA for both expanders has to be equal due to flow conditions in series, the operating point for expander 1 moves to A1 and for expander 2 to A2. The differential head HA1 of expander 1 and the differential head HA2 of expander 2 adding up to the total head HR1+HR2 for both expanders. Under these conditions the expander 1 is operating with higher speed and above the permitted maximum speed. To avoid this effect of higher speed, it is necessary that in case of power failure at one expander also the other expander have to be simultaneously disconnected from the power net. If both expanders are disconnected at the same time then the operating points of expander 1 and 2 move to the points B1 and B2 at the no-load characteristics N1 and N2 with the identical flow QB, and both expanders operating at the permitted maximum speed. The phenomenon of liquid hammer occurs during transient operation of any fluid machine. Kimmel [10] shows that two-phase fluids have increased damping qualities that reduce significantly the effect of a liquid hammer.

PO-55.5

Poster PO-55

CONCLUSION Variable speed two-phase LNG expanders in combination with variable speed singlephase LNG expanders present the optimum solution for improving existing and new liquefaction plants, reducing the overall feed gas supply by reducing the overall energy consumption and extending the lifetime of gas wells. With its short payback time of less than six months LNG expanders are economical solutions for existing and new liquefaction plants. REFERENCES CITED [1] Kikkawa, Yoshitsugi et al.:"New Cryogenic Two-Phase Expanders in LNG Production" Third Topical Conference on Natural Gas Utilization, 2003 AIChE Spring National Meeting, New Orleans, LA, March/April 2003 [2] Mukaiboh, Atsushi et al: "Two-Phase Expanders Increase Capacity of LNG Liquefaction Trains" 2006 AIChE Spring Meeting, 23-27 April 2006, Orlando FL, USA [3] Chiu, Chen-Hwa et al: "Two-Phase LNG Expanders Replace Two-Phase JouleThomson Valves" AIChE Spring National Meeting, New Orleans, LA, USA, 25-29 April 2004 [4] Cholast, Katarzyna et al: "Improvements in Nitrogen Rejection Unit Performance with Changing Gas Compositions" Gas Processor Association - Annual Conference, Warsaw, Poland, 21-23 September 2005 [5] Kociemba, Andrzej et al: "Two-Phase LNG Expanders" Gas Processor Association GTL and LNG in Europe, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 24-25 February 2005 [6] Kimmel, Hans E. et al: "LNG Expander for Extended Operating Range in LargeScale Liquefaction Trains" 2005 AIChE Spring Conference, Atlanta, [7] Madison, Joel V.: "Compact Configuration for Cryogenic Pumps and Turbines" US Patent Pending; No. US60/705,800; 6 August 2005 [8] Amsyari, Munir et al: "Natural Gas Liquefaction Process to Extend Lifetime of Gas Wells". US Patent Pending; No. US60/793,167; 18 April 2006 [9] Sutedjo, Muljono et al: "Liquefaction Process to Extend Lifetime of Depleting Gas Fields". World LNG Technology Summit 2006, 26-27 April 2006, Barcelona, Spain [10] Kimmel, Andrew: "Effect of Quadratic Fluid Damping in Two-Phase Liquefied Natural Gas" 2007 AIChE National Spring Meeting, 22-26 April 2007, Houston, USA All cited references are accessible at the following web site: http://home.btconnect.com/EIC-Publications

PO-55.6

Вам также может понравиться