Abstract
The natural gas entering the liquefaction cycle usually consists of nitrogen, ethane, propane and also heavier hydrocarbons which are economically explainable to be separated from methane, considering that their heating values are higher than methane. In this paper, a hybrid system is developed and analyzed for liquefied natural gas, natural gas liquids and power tri-generation using LNG/NGLs recovery system, absorption–compression combined refrigeration, organic Rankine cycle and solar parabolic trough collectors. This integrated structure produces 54.12 kg s−1 NGLs, 66.52 kg s−1 LNG and 278.5 MW net power output. Specific power consumption, thermal and exergy efficiencies of the hybrid system are 0.3771 kWh kg−1 LNG, 78.38% and 84.47%, respectively. The pinch method is used to extract the heat exchanger network related to the multi-stream heat exchanger of the hybrid system. To simulate the integrated structure, MATLAB programming, HYSYS and TRNSYS software with the weather conditions of Bandar Abbas city in Iran are used. The effect of natural gas composition entering the cycle on system parameters is studied and reported. Results show that with the reduction in methane percentage in natural gas to 55 mol%, specific power consumption increases to 0.6004 kWh kg−1 LNG, and thermal efficiency decreases to 71.61%. The integrated structural behavior at different operating conditions is used to investigate the sensitivity analysis.
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Abbreviations
- ACR:
-
Absorption–compression refrigeration
- CO2 :
-
Carbon dioxide
- COP:
-
Coefficient of performance
- C3MR:
-
Propane pre-cooled mixed refrigerant
- DMR:
-
Dual mixed refrigerant
- ES:
-
Evaporator–subcooler
- EC:
-
Evaporator–condenser
- HRSG:
-
Heat recovery steam generator
- LMTD:
-
Logarithmic mean temperature difference
- LNG:
-
Liquefied natural gas
- MFC:
-
Mixed fluid cascade
- MR:
-
Mixed refrigerant
- MCHE:
-
Main cryogenic heat exchangers
- NGLs:
-
Natural gas liquids
- ORC:
-
Organic Rankine cycle
- PTC:
-
Parabolic trough collector
- TPED:
-
Total primary energy demand
- TCI:
-
Total cost investment
- TAC:
-
Total annualized cost
- SDG:
-
Sustainable development goal
- GA:
-
Genetic algorithm
- A :
-
Area of the heat exchanger (m2)
- ACi:
-
Air cooler
- A :
-
Specific heat transfer area (m2 s kg−1)
- Ci:
-
Compressor
- D :
-
Receiver diameter (m)
- Di:
-
Flash drum
- E :
-
Specific flow exergy (kJ kg−1 mol−1)
- Ex:
-
Exergy (kW)
- H :
-
Specific enthalpy (kJ kg−1 mol−1)
- HXi:
-
Heat exchanger
- LW:
-
Lost work
- \(\dot{m}\) :
-
Mass flow rate (kg s−1)
- N :
-
Molar flow rate (kg mol s−1)
- P :
-
Pressure (kPa)
- \(\dot{Q}\) :
-
Rate of heat transfer (kW)
- S :
-
Specific entropy (kJ kg−1 mol−1 °C−1)
- T :
-
Temperature (K)
- TUi:
-
Turbine
- U :
-
Overall heat transfer coefficient
- W :
-
Work (kW)
- TVi:
-
Valve
- \(r_{\text{r}}\) :
-
Rim radius (m)
- R :
-
Mirror radius (m)
- F :
-
Focal length (\({\text{m}}\))
- T r :
-
Absorber temperature (°C)
- T c :
-
Glass cover temperature (°C)
- T in :
-
The temperature of receiver inlet fluid (°C)
- \(Q_{\text{u}}\) :
-
Useful energy (W)
- T sky :
-
Sky temperature (supposed to be 6 °C less than ambient temperature)
- Nu:
-
Nusselt number of turbulent temperature (−)
- Re:
-
Reynolds number (−)
- Pr:
-
Prandtl number (−)
- m c :
-
Mass flow rate collector (kg s−1)
- m a :
-
Specific mass flow rate in tube (kg m−2 s−1)
- A a :
-
Aperture area (m2)
- k fi :
-
Thermal conductivity of the inlet fluid (W m−1 K−1)
- h fi :
-
Heat transfer coefficient of the inlet fluid (W m−2 K−1)
- h r, c-am :
-
Radiation heat transfer coefficient between cover and ambient (W m−2 K−1)
- h c, c-am :
-
Convection heat transfer coefficient between cover and ambient (W m−2 K−1)
- A c :
-
The glass cover area (m2)
- h r, r-c :
-
Radiation heat transfer coefficient from absorber to cover (W m−2 K−1)
- T amb :
-
Ambient temperature (°C)
- A r :
-
The absorber area (m2)
- U L :
-
Thermal loss coefficient from the receiver (W m−2 K−1)
- \(F^{\prime}\) :
-
The collector efficiency (–)
- D ro :
-
Receiver outer diameter (m) or glass cover diameter (m)
- D ri :
-
Receiver inner diameter (m) or absorber diameter (m)
- k m :
-
Thermal conductivity (W m−1 K−1)
- X end :
-
End loss
- C :
-
Geometric concentration ratio
- h :
-
The collector thermal efficiency
- W a :
-
Parabola aperture (m)
- X :
-
Distance along longitudinal direction of the receiver that is not illuminated
- L :
-
Length of the PTC (m)
- F R :
-
Collector heat removal factor, which shows the total useful gained energy of the collector (−)
- m c :
-
Collector mass flow rate (kg s−1)
- C p :
-
Specific heat at constant pressure (kJ kg−1 K−1)
- V air :
-
Air velocity
- G h :
-
Beam radiation (W m−2)
- η :
-
Efficiency
- Σ:
-
Sum
- ∫:
-
Integration
- \(\varepsilon_{\text{c}}\) :
-
Emittance coefficient of the glass cover (−)
- \(\varepsilon_{\text{r}}\) :
-
Emittance coefficient of the absorber (−)
- \(\sigma\) :
-
Stefan–Boltzmann constant (5.67 × 10−8 W m−2 K−4)
- \(\theta_{\text{m}}\) :
-
Half of acceptance angle (°)
- \(\Delta\) :
-
Difference
- \(\theta\) :
-
Mirror angle (°)
- \(\theta_{\text{r}}\) :
-
Rim angle (°)
- \(\eta_{\text{opt}}\) :
-
Optical efficiency; the energy gained by the absorber tube to the energy reached the collector (−)
- \(\rho\) :
-
Trough reflectance (−)
- \(\tau_{\text{env}}\) :
-
Cover transmittance (−)
- \(\alpha_{\text{r}}\) :
-
Receiver absorbance (−)
- \(\gamma\) :
-
Intercept factor (−)
- \(K\left( \theta \right)\) :
-
Incident angle correction factor
- am:
-
Ambient
- a:
-
Aperture
- C:
-
Cold
- c:
-
Condenser, cover, collector
- Ch:
-
Chemical
- D:
-
Destruction
- e:
-
Evaporator
- Ex:
-
Expander
- ev:
-
Entrained vapor
- ex:
-
Exergy
- fi:
-
Inlet fluid
- F:
-
Feed
- H:
-
Hot
- i:
-
Inlet, number of stream
- j:
-
Composition
- Id:
-
Ideal
- K:
-
Number of component
- L:
-
Loss
- min:
-
Minimum
- o:
-
Outlet
- r:
-
Radiation
- rw:
-
Reversible
- p:
-
Pressure, product
- Ph:
-
Physical
- T:
-
Thermal component
- tot:
-
Total
- 0:
-
Reference state
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BG involved in supervision, conceptualization, methodology, investigation, software, validation, original draft. AE took part in conceptualization, methodology, investigation, writing original draft, software, validation. FS participated in methodology, investigation, writing original draft, software, validation. MZ took part in conceptualization, methodology, investigation, methodology.
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Ghorbani, B., Ebrahimi, A., Skandarzadeh, F. et al. Energy, exergy and pinch analyses of an integrated cryogenic natural gas process based on coupling of absorption–compression refrigeration system, organic Rankine cycle and solar parabolic trough collectors. J Therm Anal Calorim 145, 925–953 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-020-10158-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-020-10158-3