• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.677-684
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• 2013

A mixed refrigerant cycle (MRC) has been widely used in liquefaction of natural gas because it is simple and easily operable with reasonable equipment costs. One of the important techniques in MRC is selection of a refrigerant mixture and decision of its optimum mixing ratio. In this work, it is examined whether mixture components (refrigerants) and their mixing ratio influence performance of general MRC processes. In doing this, mixture design and response surface method, which are well-known statistical techniques, are used to find optimal mixture refrigerants and their optimal mixing ratio that minimize total energy consumption of the entire liquefaction process. A MRC process using several refrigerants and various mixing ratios is simulated by Aspen HYSYS and mixture design and response surface method are implemented using Minitab. According to the results, methane ($C_1$), ethane ($C_2$), propane ($C_3$) and nitrogen ($N_2$) are selected as best mixture refrigerants and the determined mixture ratio (mole ration) can reduce total energy consumption by up to 50%.

• Clean Technology
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.314-320
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• 2014

The purpose of this work is to optimize composition of mixture refrigerants used in the C3MR (Propane & Mixed Refrigerants) process by a statistical optimization technique. C3MR studied in this work is one of widely used commercial natural gas liquefaction processes with high efficiency. Process simulation was performed in a commercial process simulator and methane ($C_1$), ethane ($C_2$), propane ($C_3$), and nitrogen ($N_2$) were selected as mixed refrigerants. Using the process model, optimum composition of refrigerants mixture was determined via mixture design and central composite design to produce minimum energy consumption. As a result, it was confirmed that energy consumption is reduced down to 11.3% comparing to existing design. It was also compared with heat effectiveness through temperature profile of MCHE (main cryogenic heat exchanger).

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.99-104
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• 2015

Today the most efficient way to transport the natural gas is carried via the liquid. In order to liquefy the natural gas to be cooled to $-160^{\circ}C$ or less. Cooling method has a number of different ways. In this paper, we studied control method for the representative liquefaction process, C3MR. Natural gas liquefaction control is a tool that can maintain the quality of natural gas is a means to ensure stable operation. Analyzing the C3MR process, and select the control parameters for the control valve. We find control structure for mixed refrigerant cycle through the step response. A control result obtained through the dynamic simulation arbitrarily given a disturbance was found to maintain a steady-state results.

• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.181-185
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• 2008

The new concept for liquefaction of natural gas has been designed and simulated in this paper. Conventional liquefaction cycles are usually composed with Joule-Thomson valves at lower temperature refrigerant cycle. The new concept of natural gas liquefaction is discussed. The main difference with conventional liquefaction process is the presence of the turbine at low temperature of MR (mixed refrigerant) cycle. The turbine acts as expander but also as an energy generator. This generated energy is provided to the compressor which consumes energy to pressurize refrigerants. The composition of the mixed refrigerant is investigated in this study. Components of the refrigerant are methane, propane and nitrogen. Composition for new process is traced with Aspen HYSYS software. LNG heat exchangers are analyzed for the new process. Heating and cooling curves in heat exchangers were also analyzed.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.51-57
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• 2013

The process of liquefied natural gas is less then $-160^{\circ}C$ to natural gas by cooling at atmospheric pressure. When control strategy was made, one of the most significant is analysis of process. It is important to understand the control variable change according to manipulated variable change. In this study, we experiment natural gas liquefied process using C3MR(Propane Pre-cooled Mixed Refrigerant) process by BSU(Bench Scale Unit). We analyzed the change of refrigerant temperature and natural gas temperature according to the change of refrigerant flow rate so as to search an influence flow rate according to adjust each manipulated variables. One of the manipulated variable affected a number of control variables, but were able to confirm a control variable with a large response.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.35 no.12
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• pp.1367-1373
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• 2011

This research concerns the development of a compression/absorption high-temperature hybrid heat pump that uses a natural refrigerant mixture. Heat pumps based on the compression/absorption cycle offer various advantages over conventional heat pumps based on the vapor compression cycle, such as large temperature glide, temperature lift, flexible operating range, and capacity control. In this study, a lab-scale prototype hybrid heat pump was constructed with a two-stage compressor, absorber, desorber, desuperheater, solution heat exchanger, solution pump, liquid/vapor separator, and rectifier as the main components. The hybrid heat pump system operated at 10-kW-class heating capacity producing hot water whose temperature was more than $90^{\circ}C$ when the heat source and sink temperatures were $50^{\circ}C$. Experiments with various $NH_3/H_2O$ mass fractions and compressor/pump circulation ratios were performed on the system. From the study, the system performance was optimized at a specific $NH_3$ concentration.

• Proceedings of KOSOMES biannual meeting
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• 2018.06a
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• pp.17-17
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• 2018

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.67-72
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• 2013

The LNG liquefaction plant which have a higher value-added business in the LNG value chain takes about 35% of total cost. Liquefaction process is core technology of liquefaction plant. Almost all of cost which was consumed from the liquefaction plant, using for operation energy of liquefaction process. The cost can be reduced by increasing efficiency of liquefaction cycle. C3MR(propane pre-cooled, mixed refrigerant cycle) which liquefies NG using propane and MR cycle has the high efficiency, so C3MR is mostly used liquefaction process in LNG industry. In this study, process simulation and analysis were performed for C3MR process. C3MR process variables were found through this simulation and analysis, and then the process optimization was performed. It is considered that the results of process analysis, process variables and process optimization study can be utilized to develope new liquefaction process.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.25-34
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• 2013

The paper reviews the state of art in the design of liquefaction processes for the production of liquified natural gas, and addresses key design aspects to be considered in the design and how these design issues are systematically reflected in industrial applications. Various design options to improve energy efficiency of refrigeration cycles are discussed, including cascaded or multi-level pure refrigeration cycles which are used for covering wide range of cooling temperature, as well as mixed refrigerant cycle which can maintain a simple structure. Heat integration technique has been used for graphically examining differences of commercial cycles discussed in this paper, while energy efficiency and economics of commercial liquefaction processes has been summarized. Discussion also has been made about how to select the most appropriate set of drivers for compressors used in the liquefaction plant.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.27-32
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• 2013

Natural gas liquefaction process which is operated under cryogenic condition spends large amount of energy. Most of energy in the natural gas liquefaction process is consumed by compressors. Therefore, minimizing energy consumption of compressors is an important issue in process design and operation. Among various natural gas liquefaction processes, propane pre-cooled mixed refrigerant (C3MR) process consists of mixed refrigerant system and pure refrigerant system. In this study, to find the optimal design of pure refrigerant system, pure refrigerant cycle is simulated on different number of pressure levels and the necessary energy of each design is compared. After that, the driver selection model is applied to analyse each processes, which has different number of equipments, in terms of cost. As the result, the design using many equipments spends lower energy. Using this result, this study suggests standard of process design selection by the cost term.