Systems and methods for low-temperature gas separation

摘要

One of the drawbacks common to many currently available low-temperature gas mixture separation techniques is that known systems and methods that embody the techniques are inefficient. In contrast to known systems and methods for low-temperature gas mixture separation, some embodiments of the present invention provide a system for low-temperature gas mixture separation that recycles energy and reduces power consumption by re-circulating heated and/or cooled flows (e.g. gas, liquid and mixed-phase flows) within the system. Accordingly, in some embodiments efficiency is somewhat improved, as compared to comparable systems that do not include the re-circulation of heat energy. In some embodiments the heat energy that is re-circulated is a combination of heat added to the system (i.e. inputs to the system) and heat released within the system (i.e. byproducts from within the system) that are subsequently recovered. In particular, some systems and methods provided in accordance with embodiments of the invention are suited for separating the constituent components of natural gas and other hydrocarbon gas mixtures.