as fuel to power the fuel gas turbine. this stream has a flow rate of 2.201
lbmol/h and consists of 19.7% nitrogen, 80.2% methane, and 0.1% C2.
Stream S-112 emerges from the flash vessel at 259F and 18 psia. It is
then sent to the main heat exchanger as a cold stream, as it must be
heated before it is compressed and fed to the turbine reaction chamber.
This stream(S-113) emerges from the main exchanger at 61.2F and 18
psia. It then exits section 1 and proceeds to section 3(power generation),
which is shown in Figure 6 on page 21.
Stream S-114 is the cold nitrogen stream that provides the bulk of the
cooling power for the main heat exchanger. This stream enters the heat
exchanger at 222F and 130 psia, with a flow rate of 69.012 lbmol/h of
pure nitrogen. It emerges at the other end of the exchanger as stream S115, with a temperature of 61.2F and a pressure of 130 psia. It then
proceeds to section 4 (Nitrogen Cycle), where it will be re-compressed,
cooled, and expanded so that it is again at 222F.
Stream S-116 is the re-compressed nitrogen stream that must be precooled before it can be expanded to provide the necessary cooling for the
main heat exchanger. It enters HX-101 at 90F and 995 psia, with a flow
rate of 69.012 lbmol/h. It is cooled by streams S-112 and S-114 to 50F
at 995 psia, when it emerges as stream S-117. stream S-117 then
proceeds from section 1 to section 4, where it will be expanded to provide
cooling power.
FRACTIONATION TRAIN
Section 2 of the process is the fractionation train. The main purpose of
this section is to further separate the heavy components(C2+) present in
the bottoms product of D-101, stream S-110, so they can be sold for
additional revenue. Figure 5, on page 19 above, shows the process flow
diagram for this process section. Additionally, table 2, on page 20 above,
provides detailed information on the streams introduced in figure 5.
The liquid stream (S-110 from figure 4 or S-200 on figure 5) coming from
the bottom of the scrub column (D-101) contains 0.8% methane, 53.5%
ethane, 22.9% propane, 11.4% butane, and 11.4% C5+, at 66.1F and
300 psia. This stream is then throttled in a valve (V-201) to a temperature
of 41.2F and a pressure of 200 psia (S-201). Decreasing the pressure of
the stream increases the relative volatilities of the components, and thus
makes separation easier.
Stream S-201 then proceeds to the first distillation column in the train (D201). This column separates the components of S-201 into light
(methane, ethane and propane) components and heavy (butane and
higher) components. These streams are then further separated by other
columns further along the train. The vapor product (S-202) of column D201 has a flow rate of 910 lb mol/h at 41.8F and 190 psia, and contains
1.2% methane, 69.2% ethane, 28.8% propane, 0.7% butane, and the
balance C5+. This steam (S-202) is then sent to the light distillation
column (D-202), where it will be separated further. The liquid bottoms
product (S-205) from column D-201 has a flow rate of 270 lbmol/h at
228F and 190 psia. It contains <0.02% methane and ethane, 2.6%
propane, 47.4% butane, 40% pentane, and the balance hexanes. Stream
S-205 is then sent for further separation in the heavy distillation column
D-203.
The bottoms product (S-205) of column D-201 is at 228F and 190 psia. It
is throttled through a valve (V.202) to decrease the pressure of the stream
from 190 psia to 100 psia in order to improve separation. The lower
pressure stream (S-206) is then fed to the third distillation column, D-203.
This column separates the butanes from the pentanes and higher. The
overhead product from D-203 will be sold as a butanes product, and the
bottoms product will be sold as a pentanes plus product. The overhead
(S-207) from D-203 has a flow rate of 135 lb mol/h at 130 F and 90 psia.
It contains 5.1% propane, 91.1% butanes, 3.8% C5+. This butane rich
overhead product is then sent to storage. The bottoms product (S-208)
from D-203 has a flow rate of 135 lb mol/h at 224F and 90 psia. It
contains 0.1% propane, 3.9% butanes, and 96% C5+. The stream is then
sent to storage.
To arrive at this model for the fractionation train, two other models were
also considered. The first model was to take the lightest component off in
series in each distillation column. This method yielded a process that
gave very similar purities, and required almost the same heat duty in the
reboilers and condensers as the selected process, however the columns
had more stages, and double the reflux ratios of the selected process.
This would make those columns more expensive than the ones in the
chosen process, hence it was decided that taking the lights off first would
be less desirable.
The second model tested was where the heaviest component was taken
off each time in a series of distillation columns. Again, this process
yielded purities very similar to the chosen process and the columns were
of similar size, however the reboiler and condenser duties of those
columns were twice as large as the duties in the selected process. This
means that the heavy process would be more expensive, like the light
process, while yielding the same results as the selected process.
TREN DE FRACCIONAMIENTO
Seccin 2 del proceso es el tren de fraccionamiento. El propsito
principal de esta seccin es separar an ms los componentes pesados
(C2 +) presentes en el producto de fondo de la
D-101, S-110 corriente,
por lo que se puede vender para obtener ingresos adicionales. Figura 5,
en la pgina 19, se muestra el diagrama de flujo del proceso para esta
seccin del proceso. Adems, el cuadro 2, en la pgina 20 supra,
proporciona informacin detallada sobre las corrientes introducidas en la
figura 5.