FIELD: chemistry.
SUBSTANCE: method of extracting hydrocarbons heavier than methane from liquefied natural gas (LNG) involves pumping low pressure LNG using a pump into a zone with pressure higher than 100 pounds per inch, feeding the compressed LNG into a cooling reservoir where heat exchange takes place in order to raise its temperature, feeding the heated LNG under pressure into a separator where, combined with the first and second condensate, a distilled product of separation is formed together with bottom residue, compressing the bottom residue from the separator and then separating this compressed product into a first and a second portion, feeding the first portion of the bottom residue into a deethanising tower in form of a condensate stream, heating the second portion of the compressed bottom residue from the separator by feeding that second portion into a cooling reservoir, feeding the heated second portion of compressed bottom residue from the separator into the deethanising column, removing hydrocarbons heavier than methane as residue from the deethanasing column, feeding the distillate from the deethanising column as a second portion of raw material into the separator, removing the distillate from the separator and compressing this distillate before feeding into the cooling reservoir and heat exchange with the compressed LNG to obtain compressed LNG which is liquefied once more and separation of a portion of the once more liquefied compressed LNG in order to use it as the first condensate.
EFFECT: low power consumption and low capital expenditure.
1 dwg
Authors
Dates
2010-12-27—Published
2006-07-25—Filed