Energy and economic comparison of five mixed-refrigerant natural gas liquefaction processes

Abstract

The demand for liquified natural gas grows as it is an energy resource that has more flexible means of transport than non-liquefied natural gas, and is more eco-friendly than other fossil fuels. This paper focused on comparing five different mixed-refrigerant liquefaction processes to determine which one is the most efficient in energetic and economic terms for four different natural gas processing scales (20,000 kg/h and 2, 4, and 8 MTPA of natural gas feed). Simpler processes with one or two refrigerant cycles (single mixed refrigerant, propane pre-cooled mixed refrigerant, and dual mixed refrigerant) and more complex processes with three cycles (mixed fluid cascade and AP-X) were analyzed. All processes were simulated in Aspen HYSYS, and the energy consumption was optimized by a communication between the simulator and an optimization algorithm based on Particle Swarm Optimization coded in MATLAB. The economic analysis was performed using the CAPCOST technique and the rule of six-tenths for upscaling. In the best-optimized scenario, the results show that the most complex process, AP-X, consumes the lowest amount of energy (0.2367 kWh/kg-LNG) while the simplest one, the single mixed refrigerant, consumes the highest value (0.2561 kWh/kg-LNG). In the economic analysis, the results indicate that energetically better processes may not provide a higher economic return even on large scales.