What Every Energy Engineer Needs to Know about Thermodynamics and Liquefication Systems - Part 3B

In What Every Energy Engineer Needs to Know About Liquefied Natural Gas Safety, you'll learn ...

• The thermodynamics of expansion via expanders and the work delivered.
• The temperature relationships that occur when nitrogen is compressed and expanded.
• The methodologies used to drive expansion temperatures to low enough levels to make LNG
• How to improve the efficiency of nitrogen expansion systems applied to LNG facilities.

Overview

Preview a portion of this course before purchasing it.

Credit: 4 PDH

Length: 75 pages

This course is the fourth in a 4-course series.

• Part 1 is based on understanding thermodynamic concepts and using pressure enthalpy charts.
• Part 2 builds onto part 1 but uses thermodynamic software instead of pressure enthalpy charts for analysis and goes into additional depth.
• Part 3 (consisting of Parts 3A and 3B) builds on parts 1 and 2 to apply thermodynamics to understand air conditioning and refrigeration systems from ¼ hp size units to 300,000 hp size units. Part 3A focuses on pure substances and mixed refrigerant liquefaction systems. Part 3B focuses on nitrogen expansion liquefaction systems.

Note that each course in the series is a “stand alone” course. It is not necessary to first complete Parts 1 and 2 in order to study Parts 3A & 3B, provided the learner already possesses the prerequisite knowledge needed.

In the earlier courses, the basics of thermodynamics were covered and applied to a single-component (pure substance) refrigerant system. The car air conditioner was used to understand the vapor compression, pressure let down, and evaporation cooling system. Later, the same concepts were applied to zeotropic mixed refrigerants, which expanded the temperature range for which liquefied natural gas could be made. It was shown that when the feed gas to an LNG plant was pretreated and cooled to -260 F, LNG could efficiently be produced and stored.

Another type of liquefaction system was explained in Part 1 of 3. This was the open expansion type of liquefaction system. This system used high-pressure gas from the pipeline to power a liquefaction system by expanding the gas through expanders which produced work. The work from the expanders was used to drive compressors which compressed the gas to be liquefied and expanded to even higher pressures.

In this part (3B), the focus will be solely on the conceptual evaluation of a nitrogen expansion system. The nitrogen expansion LNG liquefier is not the most efficient liquefaction process, but it is considered the easiest to operate, and it lends itself well to making LNG near its tank saturation temperature, which greatly lessens boil-off management problems. Many of the newer small-scale liquefiers, like those for peak shaving plants, use the nitrogen expansion process.

Specific Knowledge or Skill Obtained

This course teaches the following specific knowledge and skills:

• The thermodynamics of compression and the work required
• The thermodynamics of expansion via expanders and the work delivered.
• The temperature relationships that occur when nitrogen is compressed and expanded.
• The methodologies used to drive expansion temperatures to low enough levels to make LNG
• How to improve the efficiency of nitrogen expansion systems applied to LNG facilities.

Certificate of Completion

You will be able to immediately print a certificate of completion after passing a multiple-choice quiz consisting of 24 questions. PDH credits are not awarded until the course is completed and quiz is passed.