Method of Cooling Boil-Off Gas and Apparatus Therefor

Abstract

There is provided a method of cooling a boil-off gas (BOG) stream from a liquefied gas tank using a single mixed refrigerant (SMR) comprising at least the step of heat exchanging the BOG stream with the SMR in a liquefaction heat exchanger system to provide a cooled BOG stream, wherein the SMR is provided in an SMR recirculating system comprising at least the steps of: (a) compressing the SMR using at least one centrifugal compressor to provide a post-compression SMR stream; (b) passing the post-compression SMR stream into the liquefaction heat exchanger system to cool the post-compression SMR stream and provide a cooled first SMR vapour stream; (c) withdrawing the cooled first SMR vapour stream from the liquefaction heat exchanger system; (d) separating the cooled first SMR vapour stream to provide a liquid-phase SMR stream and a light SMR vapour stream; (e) passing the light SMR vapour stream through the liquefaction heat exchanger system to provide a condensed SMR stream; and (f) expanding the condensed SMR stream to provide an expanded lowest-temperature SMR stream to pass through the liquefaction heat exchanger system for heat exchange against the BOG stream.

Claims

1. A method of cooling a boil-off gas (BOG) stream from a liquefied gas tank using a single mixed refrigerant (SMR) comprising the steps of: heat exchanging the BOG stream with the SMR in a liquefaction heat exchanger system to provide a cooled BOG stream, wherein the SMR is provided in an SMR recirculating system comprising the steps of (a) compressing the SMR using at least one centrifugal compressor to provide a post-compression SMR stream; (b) passing the post-compression SMR stream into the liquefaction heat exchanger system to cool the post-compression SMR stream and provide a cooled first SMR vapour stream; (c) withdrawing the cooled first SMR vapour stream from the liquefaction heat exchanger system; (d) separating the cooled first SMR vapour stream to provide a liquid-phase SMR stream and a light SMR vapour stream; (e) passing the light SMR vapour stream through the liquefaction heat exchanger system to provide a condensed SMR stream; and (f) expanding the condensed SMR stream to provide an expanded lowest-temperature SMR stream to pass through the liquefaction heat exchanger system for heat exchange against the BOG stream.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the BOG is from a liquefied cargo tank in a floating vessel.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the liquefaction heat exchanger system comprises a single liquefaction heat exchanger.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1 further comprising in step (e) the step of passing the light SMR vapour stream partly through a single liquefaction heat exchanger.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1 further comprising in step (e) the step of passing the light SMR vapour stream fully through a single liquefaction heat exchanger.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the liquefaction heat exchanger system comprises a multi-unit liquefaction heat exchange comprising at least two heat exchange units, and the BOG stream and the expanded lowest-temperature SMR stream pass through each of the at least two heat exchange units.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1 further comprising the steps of passing the post-compression SMR stream into a first heat exchange unit of the at least two heat exchange units, and passing the light SMR vapour stream into a second heat exchanger unit of the at least two heat exchange units.

8. The method as claimed in claim 1 further comprising the steps of passing the post-compression SMR stream into a first heat exchange unit, and passing the light SMR vapour stream into both the first heat exchange unit and a second heat exchange unit.

9. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the liquefaction heat exchanger system comprises a multi-unit liquefaction heat exchange comprising two multi-stream heat exchangers.

10. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the liquefaction heat exchanger system comprises a multi-unit liquefaction heat exchange comprising one multi-stream heat exchanger and a plurality of two-stream heat exchangers.

11. The method as claimed in claim 1 further comprising the step of ambient-cooling the post-compression SMR stream prior to step (b).

12. The method as claimed in claim 1 further comprising the steps of expanding the liquid-phase SMR stream, and passing the expanded liquid-phase SMR stream into the liquefaction heat exchanger system.

13. The method as claimed in claim 1 further comprising the step of combining the expanded liquid-phase SMR stream with the expanded lowest-temperature SMR stream in the liquefaction heat exchanger system.

14. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the liquefaction heat exchanger system comprises a multi-unit liquefaction heat exchanger system, and further comprising the step of combining the expanded liquid-phase SMR stream with the expanded lowest-temperature SMR stream between two units of the multi-unit liquefaction heat exchanger system.

15. The method as claimed in claim 1 further comprising the step of combining the expanded liquid-phase SMR stream with the expanded lowest-temperature SMR stream after the liquefaction heat exchanger system

16. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein step (f) provides a post-cooling vapour SMR stream for recirculation or reuse as part of the SMR recirculating system.

17. (canceled)

18. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the post-compression SMR stream of step (a) does not undergo any external refrigerant cooling prior to step (d).

19. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the BOG stream does not undergo any external refrigerant cooling prior to passing through the liquefaction heat exchanger.

20. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the liquefaction heat exchanger system comprises one or more plate-fin heat exchangers.

21. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the expanded lowest-temperature SMR stream provides the cooling of the first SMR vapour stream.

22. A recirculating system for use with a method of cooling a boil-off gas (BOG) stream from a liquefied gas tank using a single mixed refrigerant (SMR), the system comprising: a liquefaction heat exchanger system for heat exchanging the BOG stream with the SMR to provide a cooled BOG stream, and an SMR recirculating system comprising the steps of: (a) compressing the SMR using at least one centrifugal compressor to provide a post-compression SMR stream; (b) passing the post-compression SMR stream into the liquefaction heat exchanger system to cool the post-compression SMR stream and provide a cooled first SMR vapour stream; (c) withdrawing the cooled first SMR vapour stream from the liquefaction heat exchanger system; (d) separating the cooled first SMR vapour stream to provide a liquid-phase SMR stream and a light SMR vapour stream; (e) passing the light SMR vapour stream through the liquefaction heat exchanger system to provide a condensed SMR stream; and (f) expanding the condensed SMR stream to provide an expanded lowest-temperature SMR stream to pass through the liquefaction heat exchanger system for heat exchange against the BOG stream.

23. The recirculating system as claimed in claim 22 for use with cooling BOG from a liquefied gas cargo tank in a floating LNG cargo tank.

24-26. (canceled)

27. An apparatus for cooling a boil-off gas (BOG) stream from a liquefied gas tank comprising: a single mixed refrigerant (SMR) recirculating system as defined in claim 22 and a liquefaction heat exchanger system for heat exchange against the BOG stream.

Description

[0082] Embodiments and an example of the present invention will now be described by way of example only and with reference to the accompanying schematic drawings in which:

[0083] FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a prior art method of cooling a BOG stream using a prior art SMR system;

[0084] FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a method of cooling a BOG stream using an SMR system according to a general embodiment of the present invention;

[0085] FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a method of cooling a BOG stream using an SMR system according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

[0086] FIG. 4 is a schematic view of a method of cooling a BOG stream using an SMR system according to a second embodiment of the present invention;

[0087] FIG. 5 is a schematic view of a method of cooling a BOG stream using an SMR system according to a third embodiment of the present invention;

[0088] FIG. 6 is a schematic view of a method of cooling a BOG stream using an SMR system according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention;

[0089] FIG. 7 is a schematic view of a method of cooling a BOG stream using an SMR system according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention;

[0090] FIG. 8 is a schematic view of a method of cooling a BOG stream using an SMR system according to a sixth embodiment of the present invention; and

[0091] FIG. 9 is a schematic view of a method of cooling a BOG stream using an SMR system according to a seventh embodiment of the present invention

[0092] Where relevant, the same reference numerals are used in different Figures to represent the same or similar feature.

[0093] FIG. 1 is a prior art arrangement described hereinabove, which requires an external refrigerant circuit and apparatus based on cascade 13 to achieve re-liquefaction of the compressed BOG using an SMR recirculating system and a compressor 2.

[0094] FIG. 2 shows a method of cooling a boil-off gas stream from a liquefied gas tank according to a general embodiment of the present invention, using a single mixed refrigerant (SMR), and comprising at least the step of heat exchanging the BOG stream with the SMR in a liquefaction heat exchanger system to provide a cooled BOG stream, and wherein the SMR is provided in an SMR recirculating system according to another embodiment of the present invention.

[0095] In more detail, FIG. 2 shows a BOG stream 70 provided from one or more LNG cargo tanks (not shown) and already compressed in a compressor (also not shown). The BOG stream 70 is optionally ambient cooled in a first ambient heat exchanger 60, using a readily available cooling medium (e.g. seawater, freshwater, engine room cooling water, air). This optionally cooled (and compressed) BOG stream 71 is then passed into a liquefaction heat exchanger system 40.

[0096] The liquefaction heat exchanger system 40 may comprise any form or arrangement of one or more heat exchangers able to allow heat exchange between two or more streams, optionally between multiple streams, and optionally having at least one stream running countercurrently to one or more other streams in a part or portion of the system, in particular between the BOG stream and one of the refrigerant. Any arrangement of more than one heat exchanger may be in series or in parallel or a combination of in series and in parallel, and the heat exchangers may be separate or conjoined or contiguous, optionally in a single cooled unit or box, and optionally in the form of one or more stages of providing the required heat exchange with the BOG stream to liquefy the BOG stream.

[0097] Liquefaction heat exchanger systems comprising more than one heat exchanger generally have one section, unit or stage being ‘warmer’ than another section, unit or stage, in the sense of the average temperature therein.

[0098] Some variants of suitable liquefaction heat exchanger systems are discussed and shown hereinafter. The skilled person can recognise other variants, and the invention is not limited thereby.

[0099] In the general liquefaction heat exchanger system 40 shown in FIG. 2, the cooled (and compressed) BOG stream 71 is condensed by colder streams discussed hereinafter, generated in the SMR recirculating system 200. The condensed BOG stream leaves the exchanger system 40 via pipeline 73, and can be returned back to the LNG cargo tanks.

[0100] In the SMR system 200, an initial stream of SMR refrigerant gas 74 from a refrigerant receiver 51 is sent to a centrifugal compressor 52. Centrifugal compressors are well known in the art, and not further described herein. Centrifugal compressors are well proven in industry and are cost effective, especially for larger scale or larger volume compression.

[0101] In FIG. 2, compressing the initial SMR stream 74 using the one centrifugal compressor package 52 provides a post-compression SMR stream 79. The centrifugal compressor package may consist of multiple stages of compression, optionally with intercoolers using a readily available cooling medium (e.g. seawater, freshwater, engine room cooling water, air) between some or all of the compression stages.

[0102] The post-compression SMR stream 79 is cooled in a second ambient heat exchanger 56 using a readily available cooling medium (e.g. seawater, freshwater, engine room cooling water, air) to provide a cooler first vapour stream 80. Depending on the composition and pressure of the refrigerant, as well as on the temperature achieved in the second ambient heat exchanger 56, some condensation of the SMR may start to occur.

[0103] The cooler first vapour stream 80 passes into the liquefaction heat exchanger system 40, where the refrigerant is cooled and at least partially condensed. The cooled first SMR vapour stream 81 is withdrawn from an intermediate temperature along the liquefaction heat exchanger system 40, and enters a vapour-liquid separator 58. In the separator 58, a liquid-phase SMR stream 82 can be drained via pipeline 82.

[0104] Thereafter, the pressure of the liquid-phase SMR stream 82 can be reduced by a flash valve 59, resulting in some vaporisation and an associated reduction in temperature. The expanded, or at least partly vaporised, liquid-phase SMR stream 83 can be sent into the heat exchanger system 40, where it provides some cooling to warmer streams, while itself being vaporised.

[0105] In the separator 58, a light SMR vapour stream 84 is also sent into the heat exchanger system 40. In FIG. 2, the light SMR vapour stream 84 enters the heat exchanger system 40 at an intermediate temperature, optionally at a similar temperature to that at the withdrawal of the cooled first SMR vapour stream 81. In the heat exchanger system 40, this light SMR vapour stream 84 is cooled until it partly or wholly condenses, leaving the heat exchanger system 40 as a condensed SMR stream 85. Thereafter, the pressure is reduced via throttling valve 61, leading to partial vaporisation and temperature reduction to provide the expanded lowest-temperature SMR stream 86. The expanded lowest-temperature SMR stream 86 is the coolest SMR refrigerant stream in the SMR system 200.

[0106] The expanded lowest-temperature SMR stream 86 is sent back into heat exchanger system 40, where it vaporises as it heats up, and in doing so, cools the warmer streams in the heat exchanger system 40 to provide the majority of the cooling duty. The SMR refrigerant stream 86 can merge with the expanded liquid-phase SMR stream 83 to form a single stream which leaves the heat exchanger system 40 as a post-cooling vapour stream 89, to be returned to refrigerant receiver 51.

[0107] In this way, the requirement in prior art arrangement in FIG. 1 for an external refrigerant cascade is removed. This represents a reduction in capital expenditure, and in overall plant size. The partial condensation of SMR vapour is achieved without an external refrigerant cascade loop, having shifted that duty to the SMR recirculating system only.

[0108] FIG. 3 shows a more detailed SMR recirculating system 101 being a first variation example of the SMR recirculating system 200 shown in FIG. 2. The first SMR recirculating system 101 comprises a single multi-stream liquefaction heat exchanger 57, (typically a brazed aluminium plate-fin heat exchanger), where the cooled (and compressed) BOG stream 71 is condensed by the colder streams discussed herein before in the SMR recirculating system 200.

[0109] FIG. 4 shows a second variation example SMR recirculating system 102 of the SMR recirculating system 200 shown in FIG. 2, wherein the liquefaction heat exchanger system now comprises two heat exchangers, being the first and second multi-stream heat exchange units 64 and 62. In FIG. 4, there is a mixing of cold streams externally of the heat exchange units 64 and 62. That is, the expanded lowest-temperature SMR stream or coldest refrigerant stream 86 is sent into the second unit 62, where it starts to vaporise as it heats up, and in doing so, cools the warmer streams in the second unit 62, and then exits as a part-warmer SMR stream 87 prior to merging with the expanded liquid-phase SMR stream 83 to form a combined stream 88, which then passes into the first unit 64 to cool the warmer streams in the first unit 64, and leaving the first unit 64 as a post-cooling vapour stream 89, to be returned to refrigerant receiver 51. Meanwhile, the cooled BOG from the first unit 64 passes as stream 72 into the second cooler unit 62.

[0110] The first and second heat exchange units 64 and 62 may be contiguous or separate.

[0111] FIG. 5 shows a third variation example SMR recirculating system 103, being a further variation of the SMR recirculating system 102 shown in FIG. 4. In FIG. 5, the liquefaction heat exchanger system comprises first and second multi-stream heat exchange units 63 and 62. Compared with FIG. 4, the expanded liquid-phase SMR stream 83 and part-warmer SMR stream 88 are kept separate in first unit 63. The first and second warmer SMR streams 90 and 91 provided by the liquefaction heat exchanger system are combined in the vapour phase after they leave the first unit 63 to form a combined post-cooling vapour stream 89, to be returned to refrigerant receiver 51.

[0112] FIG. 6 shows a fourth variation example SMR recirculating system 104, being another variation of the SMR recirculating system 102 shown in FIG. 4. In FIG. 6, the liquefaction heat exchanger system comprises first and second multi-stream heat exchange units 63A and 62. Compared with FIG. 4, the light SMR vapour stream 95 provided by the vapour-liquid separator 58 now passes into the warmer first unit 63A to provide an intermediate stream 92, prior to passage through the cooler second unit 62 (to exit as a condensed SMR stream 85).

[0113] FIG. 7 shows a fifth variation example SMR recirculating system 105, being a combination of the third SMR recirculating system 103 shown in FIG. 5 and the fourth SMR recirculating system 104 shown in FIG. 6. In FIG. 7, the liquefaction heat exchanger system comprises first and second multi-stream heat exchange units 65 and 62, and the light SMR vapour stream 95 provided by the vapour-liquid separator 58 now passes into the first warmer unit 65 (to provide an intermediate stream 92, prior to passage through the second cooler unit 62 to exit as a condensed SMR stream 85), and the expanded liquid-phase SMR stream 83 and part-warmer SMR stream 88 are kept separate in first unit 65. The first and second warmer SMR streams 93 and 94 provided by the liquefaction heat exchanger system are combined in the vapour phase after they leave the first unit 65 to form a combined post-cooling vapour stream 89, to be returned to refrigerant receiver 51.

[0114] FIG. 8 shows a sixth variation example SMR recirculating system 106, being a combination of the first SMR recirculating system 101 shown in FIG. 3 and the fourth SMR recirculating system 104 shown in FIG. 6. In FIG. 8, the liquefaction heat exchanger system comprises a single multi-stream liquefaction heat exchanger 66, and the light SMR vapour stream 95 provided by the vapour-liquid separator 58 now passes fully through the heat exchanger 66 (to provide a condensed SMR stream 85), whilst the expanded liquid-phase SMR stream 83 merges with the refrigerant stream 86 at an intermediate location within the heat exchanger 66 to form a single stream which leaves the heat exchanger 66 as a post-cooling vapour stream 89, to be returned to refrigerant receiver 51.

[0115] FIG. 9 shows a seventh SMR variation example recirculation system 107, being a variant of the SMR recirculating system 104 shown in FIG. 6, wherein the first multi-stream heat exchange unit 63A in the liquefaction heat exchanger system is replaced by a series of two-stream heat exchangers. The series of two-stream heat exchangers still provide the same first and warmer stage or section of the liquefaction heat exchanger system, now using a series of distinct heat exchangers suitably arranged to work together.

[0116] In FIG. 9, the cooler first vapour stream 80 passes into a first two-stream heat exchanger 96 against a stream discussed hereinafter, to provide the cooled first SMR vapour stream 81 in the same manner as before, to pass into the vapour-liquid separator 58. From the separator 58, a liquid-phase SMR stream 82 is expanded by a flash valve 59 to provide an at least partly vaporised, liquid-phase SMR stream 83. The separator 58 also provides the light SMR vapour stream 95, which passes into a second two-stream heat exchanger 97 to provide an intermediate stream 92 prior to its passage into the same second unit 62 as discussed and shown in FIG. 6.

[0117] Meanwhile, the cooled and compressed BOG stream 71 passes into a third two-stream heat exchanger 98 to provide a cooler BOG stream 72 to pass into the second cooler unit 62.

[0118] The second unit 62 in FIG. 9 provides the condensed BOG stream 73 in the same manner as described above, and a part-warmer SMR stream 87, which merges with the expanded liquid-phase SMR stream 83 to form a combined stream 88, which is then divided into part-streams 99A and 99B. Part-stream 99A passes into the second heat exchanger 97, and part-stream 99B passes into the third heat exchanger 98. Their exit streams combine to form a combined stream 100 which then passes into the first heat exchanger 96 to exit as the post-cooling vapour stream 89.

[0119] Where the liquefaction heat exchanger system comprises multiple heat exchanger units, the present invention is not limited by the relative positioning of the first and second units, which may be contiguous or separate.

[0120] It is possible that the composition and/or ratio of components in the SMR can be varied to achieve best effect for each arrangement of the present invention. It is also possible that the SMR composition is different in each of the examples shown in FIGS. 3-9.

[0121] The present invention is a modification of a typical single mixed refrigerant (SMR) cycle for LNG re-liquefaction in particular, that allows the use of a centrifugal compressor in the mixed refrigerant system, without the requirement of an external refrigerant cascade. In comparison with the typical arrangement, the present innovation allows for reduced complexity, fewer pieces of equipment, reduced capital cost, and is suitable for applications requiring larger reliquefaction capacities.