Method of treating a hydrocarbon stream comprising methane, and an apparatus therefor

摘要

In a method and apparatus for treating a hydrocarbon stream (110) comprising methane, at least a part (130) of the hydrocarbon stream (110) and a main refrigerant stream (310) are cooled by indirect heat exchanging against a pre-cooling refrigerant (230). The pre-cooled hydrocarbon stream (140) is passed to a first inlet (151) of an extraction column (125), and an effluent stream (160) is discharged from the extraction column (125). The effluent stream (160) and at least a part of the pre-cooled main refrigerant stream (320) are passed to a further heat exchanger (175), where they are both cooled thereby providing a cooled methane-enriched hydrocarbon stream (180) and at least one cooled main refrigerant stream (410,430). Said passing of the effluent stream (160) to the further heat exchanger (175) and said passing of the pre-cooled hydrocarbon stream (140) to the first inlet (151) of the extraction column (125) comprises indirectly heat exchanging the effluent stream (160) against the pre-cooled hydrocarbon stream (140).