Natural gas liquefaction with feed water removal

摘要

A method and apparatus for drying and liquefying a natural gas stream is described, in which: (a) the water containing natural gas feed stream (10) is cooled (11); (b) the cooled natural gas feed stream (12) is dried (13) and further cooled (15); (c) the dried cooled natural gas stream (16) is heated (11); (d) the dried rewarmed natural gas stream (17) is cooled and liquefied (1) and at least one compressed refrigerant feed stream (3) is cooled by counter-current indirect heat exchange with an expanded cold refrigerant; and (e) the compressed cold refrigerant stream or streams are expanded (38,39), and thereby further cooled, to provide said expanded cold refrigerant; wherein the cooling of the natural gas feed stream in step (a) and heating of the dried cooled natural gas stream in step (c) is by indirect heat exchange (11) between said two streams.