A method and apparatus for producing liquefied natural gas. A pretreated natural gas stream is compressed in at least two serially arranged compressors to a pressure of at least 1,500 psia and cooled. The resultant cooled compressed natural gas stream is expanded in at least one work producing natural gas expander to a pressure less than 2,000 psia and no greater than the pressure to which natural gas stream has been compressed, thereby forming a chilled natural gas stream that is separated into a refrigerant stream and a non-refrigerant stream. The refrigerant stream is warmed in a heat exchanger through heat exchange with one or more process streams associated with pretreating the natural gas stream, thereby generating a warmed refrigerant stream. The warmed refrigerant stream and the non-refrigerant stream are then liquefied.

A method and system for producing liquid air wherein liquid refrigerant is cycled between two core tanks maintained at a temperature sufficient to liquify compressed air passed through condensing tubing in the interior of the core tanks. Liquid refrigerant is cycled by alternating high pressure gas from a high pressure tank to one of the core tanks, which forces liquid refrigerant from this tank through an expansion device to expand a portion of the liquid refrigerant to absorb heat in the other core tank, the resulting refrigerant gas being driven into a low pressure tank. A compression device transfers the refrigerant gas from the low pressure tank to the high pressure tank and maintains the pressure in the high pressure tank. Connections between the low and high pressure tanks and the core tanks are reversed with each cycle.

Various systems and methods for suppling cryogenic refrigeration to supercomputing applications such as quantum computing operations are provided. The disclosed systems and methods are flexible, efficient and scaleable to meet the cryogenic refrigeration requirements of many supercomputing applications. The disclosed systems and methods include: (i) a liquid nitrogen based integrated refrigeration system that integrates a nitrogen refrigerator with a refrigeration load circuit; (ii) a closed loop liquid nitrogen based refrigerator that provides cooling to the refrigeration load circuit via indirect heat exchange between liquid nitrogen in a nitrogen refrigerator and a separate refrigerant in a closed-loop refrigeration load circuit; and (iii) a liquid air based integrated refrigeration system that integrates an air intake system with a refrigerator and a refrigeration load circuit.

A system and method for liquefying a hydrogen gas feed stream uses a pre-cooling refrigerant for pre-cooling the feed stream, where the pre-cooling refrigerant is compressed, cooled and then separated to provide high pressure mixed refrigerant vapor and liquid streams. The high pressure vapor stream is cooled and directed to a cold vapor separator where cold separator liquid and vapor streams are formed. The cold separator vapor stream is cooled and expanded to provide a pre-cool refrigeration stream in a heat exchanger system. The high pressure pre-cooling refrigerant liquid and cold separator liquid streams are cooled and expanded and directed to the pre-cool refrigeration stream. A high pressure primary refrigerant steam, after compression and cooling, is further cooled in the heat exchanger system and then expanded using warm and cold expanders, with the resulting expanded primary refrigerant streams used to liquefy the pre-cooled hydrogen feed stream via heat exchange in the heat exchanger system.

A method for liquefying a feed gas stream. A compressed first refrigerant stream is cooled and expanded to produce an expanded first refrigerant stream. The feed gas stream is cooled to within a first temperature range by exchanging heat only with the expanded first refrigerant stream to form a liquefied feed gas stream and a warmed first refrigerant stream. A compressed second refrigerant stream is provided is cooled to produce a cooled second refrigerant stream. At least a portion of the cooled second refrigerant stream is further cooled by exchanging heat with the expanded first refrigerant stream, and then is expanded to form an expanded second refrigerant stream. The liquefied feed gas stream is cooled to within a second temperature range by exchanging heat with the expanded second refrigerant stream to form a sub-cooled LNG stream and a first warmed, second refrigerant stream.

A method for recovering boil-off gas from a system including one or more liquefaction trains including transport trucks or loading bays, a gaseous hydrogen feed stream, a lower-temperature cold box, and a low-pressure hydrogen compressor. The method including collecting a boil-off gas stream from the transport trucks or loading bays, determining the pressure of the boil-off gas stream, and depending on the pressure, recycling the boo-off gas stream to predetermined destinations. Wherein the boil-off gas stream has either a low-pressure, having a pressure of less than 2 bara, or a medium-pressure, having a pressure equal to or greater than 2 bara.

A device and a method for recovering by-product oxygen from water-electrolysis hydrogen production using a low-temperature method are provided, solving the waste problem of by-product oxygen in the green water-electrolysis hydrogen production system. The device according to the present disclosure comprises an oxygen clarifying system, a pressurizing and heat exchanging system, and a circulating gas compression and expansion refrigeration system. The recovering method according to the present disclosure comprises the following steps: first clarifying and purifying the by-product oxygen from water-electrolysis hydrogen production is to remove hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, water and other impurities in the oxygen; and then, liquefying, pressurizing and heat exchanging the pure oxygen to obtain the product oxygen and liquid oxygen with required pressure. In the whole process, the cooling capacity is provided by the circulating gas expansion refrigeration system.

Low-temperature refrigeration device arranged in a frame and comprising a working circuit forming a loop and containing a working fluid, the working circuit forming a cycle comprising in series: a compression mechanism, a cooling mechanism, an expansion mechanism and a heating mechanism, the device comprising a refrigeration heat exchanger intended to extract heat from at least one member by exchanging heat with the working fluid, the mechanisms for cooling and reheating the working fluid comprising a common heat exchanger in which the working fluid transits in counter-flow in two separate transit portions of the working circuit, the compression mechanism comprising at least two compressors and at least one motor for driving the compressors, the working fluid expansion mechanism comprising at least one rotary turbine, the device comprising at least one drive motor comprising a drive shaft, one end of which drives a compressor and the other end of which is coupled to a turbine, the motor being attached to the frame at at least one fixed point, the common heat exchanger being attached to the frame at at least one fixed point, the two counter-flow transit portions of the common heat exchanger being orientated in a longitudinal direction of the frame, the drive shaft of the drive motor being orientated in a direction parallel or substantially parallel to the longitudinal direction and the turbine and the compressor being arranged relatively longitudinally such that the turbine is located longitudinally on the side corresponding to the relatively cold end of the common heat exchanger when the device is being operated and the compressor is located longitudinally on the side corresponding to the relatively hot end of the common heat exchanger when the device is being operated.

Disclosed is a low-temperature refrigeration device which is arranged in a frame and comprises a working circuit that forms a loop and contains a working fluid, the working circuit forming a cycle comprising, connected in series: a compression mechanism, a cooling mechanism, an expansion mechanism and a heating mechanism, wherein the mechanisms for cooling and heating the working fluid comprise a common heat exchanger in which the working fluid flows in opposite directions in two separate transit portions of the working circuit, the device further comprising a refrigeration heat exchanger for extracting heat from at least one member by exchanging heat with the working fluid flowing in the working circuit, the compression mechanism comprising two separate compressors, the mechanism for cooling the working fluid comprising two cooling heat exchangers which are arranged respectively at the outlet of the two compressors and ensure heat exchange between the working fluid and a cooling fluid, wherein the frame extends in a longitudinal direction and comprises a lower base intended to be mounted on a support, the cooling heat exchangers are located in the frame about the common heat exchanger, i.e. the cooling heat exchangers are not located below the common heat exchanger between the common heat exchanger and the lower base of the frame.

A small to mid-scale liquefied natural gas production system and method is provided. The disclosed liquefied natural gas production system employs at least one heat exchanger, three turbine/expanders and at least three refrigerant compression stages. The expansion ratio of one turbine/expander is appreciably lower than the expansion ratio of the other turbine/expanders such that the temperature of the exhaust stream from the turbine/expander with the lower expansion ratio is above the critical point temperature of the compressed natural gas containing feed stream but colder than about −15° C. The present system and method may be configured using either a single nitrogen-based expansion refrigerant circuit or two separate refrigerant circuits wherein the turbine/expander with the lowest expansion ratio is contained within a separate refrigeration circuit from the other two turbine/expanders with the higher expansion ratios.