Method for providing refrigeration to parallel heat exchangers

摘要

A method for cooling a process stream (201) in which one (217) of a plurality of open-loop refrigerant streams is cooled by indirect heat exchange with other (221,223) of the open-loop refrigerant streams in a refrigerant heat exchanger (219) to yield a cooled primary refrigerant stream (225). The process stream is cooled by indirect heat exchange with a process refrigerant stream (231) in a separate process heat exchanger (207), wherein the process refrigerant stream (231) comprises at least a portion of the cooled primary refrigerant stream (225). The method is particularly useful in large process plants which require multiple parallel heat exchangers to cool the process stream. <IMAGE>