PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR EXTRACTING NATURAL GAS LIQUIDS FROM A STREAM OF LIQUEFIED NATURAL GAS

摘要

The present invention relates to a method of deriching a stream of liquefied natural gas by extracting a natural gas liquid comprising inter alia the steps of: heating the stream of liquefied natural gas (1) in a first heat exchanger arrangement (5); splitting it into at least a first portion (17) and a second portion (19); passing the first portion (17) to a distillation column (21) and passing the second portion (19) to a second heat exchanger arrangement (26) and then supplying it (20) to the distillation column (21) from which a natural gas liquid stream (35) and an overhead vapour stream (40) are withdrawn; -passing the overhead vapour stream (40) to the second heat exchanger arrangement (26) to form an intermediate deriched condensate stream (49) of which at least a portion is thereafter passed to the distillation column.