INTEGRATED PROCESSING OF NATURAL GAS INTO LIQUID PRODUCTS

摘要

An integrated process for producing LNG and GTL products is provided comprising cooling natural gas (1) in at least one cooling step (2) so as to provide a cooled natural gas stream; processing the cooled natural gas strea m (8) in at least two expansion/separation cycles, each expansion/separation cycle comprising the Substeps of (a) isentropically or isenthalpically expanding (9, 21) at least a portion of the cooled natural gas steam for producing a natural gas vapor component (13 A, B) and a LNG component (19, 24), (b) separating at least a portion of the natural gas vapor component fr om the LNG component, and (c) repeating substeps (a) through (b) wherein at lea st a portion of the LNG component from the previous expansion/separation cycle is directed to each successive Substep (a) and wherein the final LNG product (2 4) is the LNG component after the final separating step and is substantially liquid at substantially atmospheric pressure; and converting at least a portion of one or more of the expansion/separation cycle natural gas vapor components (13 A, B) into a GTL product.