Operating Experience with the SplitMR Machinery Configuration of the C3MR LNG Process

Abstract

Abstract Efficiency and economics have motivated RasGas Trains 3–5 to implement a novel compressor-driver arrangement comprising both propane and mixed refrigerant (MR) compressors on a single shaft. One Frame 7E gas turbine drives the LP and MP MR compressors while a second Frame 7E drives the propane and HP MR machines. With minor control system adjustments after startup, the refrigerant compressors in RasGas Train 3 are operating reliably. Introduction The propane precooled mixed refrigerant (C3MR) process developed by Air Products has been the dominant process technology employed in the LNG industry for over 30 years. This process uses a propane refrigerant system to chill the feed gas from ambient temperature to about -33oC and a mixed component refrigerant (MR) to chill the gas to LNG temperatures. Because pure propane is used in the precooling refrigeration cycle, the minimum temperature of this cycle is limited to the boiling temperature of propane near atmospheric pressure. The total duty that can be transferred to the propane refrigerant is thereby naturally limited to heat that can be transferred within this range. Because of the propane's limited temperature range, one of the characteristics of the C3MR process arrangement is that the MR refrigeration system requires nearly double the compression power of the propane refrigeration system. The actual difference depends on the number of propane stages, the ambient conditions, the environmental cooling medium, and other process arrangements. To drive these refrigeration compressors, early LNG plants used steam turbines that could be sized to fit the required service (e.g. Marsa el Brega).Later projects determined that gas turbines drivers were a more efficient and less costly option for driving the compressors. For procurement, maintainability and sparing purposes, an operating facility would prefer to have each of the compression services driven by the same type and model of gas turbine driver. For the C3MR process, such an arrangement is typically inconvenient due to the inherent power consumption mismatch between the propane and MR services.