The invention relates to a refrigeration system that in mode 1 prepares a reservoir of cooled refrigerant before flowing unconditioned gas through the system, and in mode 2, continuously cools feed gas with the prepared refrigerant inventory, extracting natural gas liquids (NGLs) comprising predominantly ethane, propane, butane, and condensate and controlled by a control system without needing ramp up time.

An expander and motor-compressor unit is disclosed. The unit includes a casing and an electric motor arranged in the casing. A compressor is arranged in the casing and drivingly coupled to the electric motor through a central shaft. Furthermore, a turbo-expander is arranged for rotation in the casing and is drivingly coupled to the electric motor and to the compressor through the central shaft.

A C3 hydrocarbon fractionation system includes: a) a unit for providing a feed containing mainly propane and propylene, b) a C3 fractionation column for separating the feed to provide a top product richer in propylene than the feed and a bottom product leaner in propylene than the feed, wherein the bottom product comprises at least 50 wt % of propylene and c) a cumene production unit comprising an alkylation reactor for producing cumene from a propylene feed and a benzene feed, wherein the propylene feed comprises the bottom product of the C3 fractionation column.

An energy efficient process for NGL recovery and production of compressed natural gas (CNG) in which natural gas is fed to a first gas separation membrane-based separation stage where it is separated into a permeate and a retentate. The high C.sub.3+ concentration first stage permeate is chilled and separated to provide liquid phase NGL and a gaseous phase. The first stage retentate is separated at a second gas membrane-based separation stage to produce a retentate meeting pipeline specifications for CNG (including hydrocarbon dewpoint) and a permeate that is recycled to the first stage. The gaseous phase, constituting a low BTU fuel, may be used in on-site power generation equipment and/or in internal combustion engines. The second stage permeate (and optionally the third stage retentate) is (are) recycled back to the first stage to enhance the production of NGL and CNG. The gaseous phase may instead be fed to a third stage to produce a third permeate and a third residue, in which case the third permeate is recycled to the first stage and the third retentate is a low BTU fuel which may be used in on-site power generation equipment and/or in internal combustion engines.

A method including, compressing a first hydrogen stream, and expanding a portion to produce a hydrogen refrigeration stream, cooling a second hydrogen stream thereby producing a cool hydrogen stream, wherein at least a portion of the refrigeration is provided by a nitrogen refrigeration stream, further cooling at least a portion of the cool hydrogen stream thereby producing a cold hydrogen stream, and a warm hydrogen refrigeration stream wherein at least a portion of the refrigeration is provided by the hydrogen refrigeration stream, compressing the warm hydrogen refrigeration stream, mixing the balance of the compressed first hydrogen stream with a high-pressure gaseous nitrogen stream to form an ammonia synthesis gas stream, and wherein the first hydrogen stream and the warm hydrogen refrigeration stream are compressed in the same compressor.

Embodiments provide a method for preventing shutdowns in LNG facilities by removing heavy hydrocarbons from the inlet gas supply. According to an embodiment, there is provided an LNG facility treating pipeline quality natural gas that is contaminated with lubrication oil and low concentrations of heavy hydrocarbons. Due to contamination, the behavior of the pipeline quality natural gas is not properly predicted by thermodynamic modeling. In an embodiment, heavy hydrocarbons are removed by a drain system in a heat exchanger. In an embodiment, heavy hydrocarbons are removed by a treatment bed.

Gas processing methodology for high efficiency recovery of propane and/or ethane from a natural gas feed stream. The method is conducted without turboexpansion, and in some embodiments, without the use of a refrigeration system. A natural gas stream is processed to have gas and liquid portions. The gas portions are cooled and flow to a refluxed absorber column and the liquid portions flow to a lower pressure distillation column. Bottoms of the absorber column are depressurized into a separator, with the separator overhead vapor being used as a source of absorber column reflux. The separator liquids are fed into the lower pressure distillation column and the distillation column overhead vapor stream is used to cool the feed and/or reflux streams. The overhead vapour stream from the lower pressure distillation can be recycled to the absorber, either as a recycle or a source of reflux.

In a process for the recovery of cold from a methane-rich fluid for the cooling of a flow rich in carbon dioxide, cold is provided to a first heat exchanger for the cooling of the flow by the evaporation of an intermediate fluid by exchange of heat with the methane-rich fluid in order to form at least one condensed intermediate fluid flow at at least one pressure level; at least a part of the intermediate fluid evaporated in a second heat exchanger is condensed at at least one pressure into at least one flow.

An atmospheric water harvesting system includes a water-harvesting unit with an air mover and a heat exchanger. The water-harvesting unit may also include one or more screens on which water can condense. The water-harvesting unit is supplied by a coolant pathway, in which a non-cryogenic fluid coolant flows. A cryogenic cell is in the coolant pathway. The cryogenic cell receives the fluid coolant and removes heat from it by causing or allowing a controlled heat transfer between the fluid coolant and a first cryogen sealed within an inner vessel in the cryogenic cell. The coolant may be a liquid at operating temperatures, and the cryogenic cell may cool it to an appropriate temperature without a phase change, essentially acting as a “cold battery” to remove heat from the coolant.

An operation analysis method for a natural gas plant includes: acquiring production amount data of a product per unit time and operation data of a plurality of controlled devices forming the natural gas plant in association with each other along a time series; determining whether or not a controlled device that violates the operation constraint is present at the time point of acquisition of the production amount data when the production amount data is less than the reference production amount, and performing data processing of associating an item subjected to the operation constraint to the production amount data; and determining, for each of the items subjected to the operation constraints, a length of a period with the production reduction in accordance with a magnitude of the production reduction amount.