The process of production of liquefied methane - the component of rocket propellant

Anatoly M Domashenko,Andrey L Dovbish,A.V Shakurov

doi:10.1051/matecconf/202032401004

Abstract

The use of new fuel components, such as LNG or liquefied methane, in rocket-space, aviation and other special-purpose engineering is promising. On the basis of these fuel components it is possible to provide a number of technical and tactical parameters of aircrafts, which are not achievable when using standard fuels. Considered were the cryogenic systems developed by PJSC "Cryogenmash" for natural gas liquefaction with liquid methane recovery by the method of low-temperature condensation, stage separation and rectification. The second method allows to reduce the content of not only low boiling but also high boiling liquids in methane liquefied.

Highlights

Leading cryogenic companies from the USA, China, Japan, Western Europe, as well as Russia, reasonably predict the use of liquefied methane (LM) as the main fuel for transport facilities of the XXI century, including special purpose equipment [1]
As a result of the rectification, steam withdrawn from the top of the column is significantly enriched with a low-boiling component, and the liquid withdrawn from the bottom is highly boiling
The liquefaction plant with rectification unit The analysis has shown that it is impossible to obtain high purity liquefied methane from natural gas by any of the given compositions without using rectification processes

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Leading cryogenic companies from the USA, China, Japan, Western Europe, as well as Russia, reasonably predict the use of liquefied methane (LM) as the main fuel for transport facilities of the XXI century, including special purpose equipment (aerospace, rocket-space, aviation) [1]. C – compressor; ThV – throttle valve The liquefaction plant provided with the separation unit The calculations prove that for gas processing with low content of heavy hydrocarbon fractions it is reasonable to use the circuit of high-pressure throttle ejector liquefier with pre-cooling without rectification columns, using only the effect of stage separation, to obtain liquefied methane. The liquid from the S-3 separator is the purified LNG - liquefied methane (LM) of a given composition and is throttled into the liquid methane storage to the pressure of 0.14 MPa. The vapours from the S-3 separator, preheated in the He-2 and He-1 heat exchangers, are fed for disposal. The vapour flow from the top part of RC-2 column is preheated in series into He-3 and He-6 heat exchangers and enter for disposal The differences will be mainly in the amount of flows to be disposed

The material balances of the plant with the NG rectification unit

Parameters and dimensions

Findings

CONCLUSIONS