Abstract
The recovery of ethylene from crude light hydrocarbon gas mixture is an economically important but highly energy intensive process. Cryogenic separation methods are commonly used which require large amounts of refrigeration at low temperatures and the development of the methods to reduce net power to provide this refrigeration is important in the petrochemical industry. This chapter presents two sets of low temperature mixed refrigerant cycles developed for a typical olefin plant utilizing a mixture of methane, ethane, propane, and nitrogen as cycle working fluid to replace the pure ethylene refrigeration cycle which is used in conjunction with propylene refrigeration in conventional plants. The key parameters of the two cycles are compared, and the matching of the heating and cooling curves in heat exchangers is also analyzed. The obtained results reveal that mixed refrigerant cycles can improve thermodynamic performance of refrigeration systems in the case of using optimal working fluid mixture composition, optimal high and low operating pressures and optimal arrangement of the cycle components. Also, the results show that each mixed refrigerant cycle configuration has its own optimal mixture composition and optimal compressor power consumption.
Published Version
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