FIELD: heat exchanger.
SUBSTANCE: present invention provides a heat exchanger and heat exchange method for cooling a gaseous process stream. The heat exchanger block (100, 200, 300) contains: a heat exchanger container (2), the heat exchanger container (2) contains a set of pipelines (12, 14) for a process stream, configured to receive a gaseous process stream (10) and discharge a cooled process stream (18), and a plurality of refrigerant conduits (46, 48, 49) configured to receive at least a portion of the pre-cooled mixed refrigerant stream (58) and discharge at least one cooled mixed refrigerant stream (72, 82); at least one expansion device (74, 84) configured to receive at least a portion of the cooled mixed refrigerant stream (72, 82) and discharge an additional cooled mixed refrigerant stream (76, 86), wherein the additional cooled stream (76, 86) of the mixed refrigerant is connected to at least one of the third refrigerant inlet (77) and the fourth refrigerant inlet (87) of the heat exchanger vessel (2) to provide cooling to the process flow piping (12, 14) and piping (46, 48, 49) for refrigerant; a refrigerant recovery vessel (110) configured to receive a first separated refrigerant stream (112) from the cooled mixed refrigerant stream (72, 82) and receive a second separated refrigerant stream (114) from the pre-cooled mixed refrigerant stream; wherein the container (110) for discharging the refrigerant comprises a diversion outlet (116) for discharging the recirculation stream (118) and a recirculation outlet (120) for discharging the recirculation stream (122), wherein the recirculation outlet is in fluid communication with at least one of the third coolant inlet (77) and the fourth coolant inlet (87) of the heat exchanger container (2).
EFFECT: reduction in the need to replenish the refrigerant in the event of a methane leak in the gas circuit of the heat exchanger.
18 cl, 5 dwg
