Investigation of a hybrid water desalination, oxy-fuel power generation and CO2 liquefaction process

Abstract

In this paper, an integrated liquefied natural gas (LNG) production process, carbon dioxide separation and liquefaction, and fresh water production is proposed and analyzed. The hybrid system consists of three sections: power and heat generation by the process of combustion with pure oxygen, natural gas liquefaction with a two-stage refrigeration cycle (absorption refrigeration cycle and multi-component refrigerant), and multiple-effect distillation (MED) desalination. This integrated process produce 593.3 ton/h LNG, 84.62 ton/h carbon dioxide, and 74.58 ton/h fresh water. Exergy analysis shows that the highest exergy destruction is related to the shell and tube heat exchangers, which is about 38.8% and the lowest exergy destruction is related to the air coolers, 0.84%. Integrated process has an overall electrical efficiency (LHV Base) of 36.3%, a specific power of 0.179 kWh/kg LNG. Also the amount of energy consumed for producing carbon dioxide is 0.005 kWh/kg CO2, and gained output ratio (GOR) of 2.87 is achieved by three-stage MED desalination. A sensitivity analysis is done to investigate and identify the important parameters affecting the integrated process performance.