METHOD FOR LIQUIFICATION OF NATURAL GAS BASED ON THROTTLE CYCLE USING VORTEX TUBES Russian patent published in 2022 - IPC F25J1/00 

FIELD: gas industry.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to the gas industry and can be used in small-scale production of liquefied natural gas (LNG). High pressure natural gas (NG) is divided into a process stream, which is fed to the inlet of the first vortex tube (VT), and a production stream, which, after the first heat exchanger (HE), is divided into a process stream, which is fed to the inlet of the second VT, and a direct stream, which is sequentially sent through HE, throttled and sent to the main separator. The vapor phase from the main separator is passed through the TO, throttled and fed into the receiving tank. A reverse flow is formed from the vapor phase from the receiving tank, carried through the HE, simultaneously mixed with flows from the cold end of the first and second VT and sent to the network to the consumer. The streams from the hot ends of the first and second VTs are mixed and sent to the network to the consumer. The liquid fraction containing undesirable impurities is withdrawn in the main separator and mixed with the reflux. The equilibrium pressure and temperature in the LNG receiving tank are increased to the highest values ​​acceptable for subsequent transportation in order to increase the solubility limit of undesirable impurities in LNG.

EFFECT: equipment simplification.

5 cl, 1 dwg, 2 tbl