| 摘要 |
A hydrocarbon stream is cooled by passing the hydrocarbon stream through at least one heat exchanger by a method, which comprises the steps of: (a) compressing a refrigerant in a compressor unit to yield compressed refrigerant; (b) expanding the compressed refrigerant, to yield cold refrigerant; (c) passing the hydrocarbon stream against the cold refrigerant in the heat exchanger designed for a maximum inlet flow of the refrigerant, to yield a cooled hydrocarbon stream and at least partly evaporated refrigerant; (d) recovering the cold hydrocarbon stream; and (e) recycling at least part of the at least partly evaporated refrigerant to the compressor unit, wherein the compressor unit comprises at least two compressors that all operate simultaneously in parallel and wherein the compressor unit has a design capacity in excess of the maximum inlet flow of refrigerant to the heat exchanger. The invention also provides an apparatus for this method. |
